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Some aspects of the crack propagation in cortical bones

Conference Paper · June 2010

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 SOME ASPECTS OF THE CRACK PROPAGATIO I CORTICAL
BOES
V. Tamuzs1, S. Tarasovs2, . Romalis3
1,2
Institute of Polymer Mechanics, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
3
Department of Mathematics, University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT 06601 USA

A finite element analysis has been used to investigate the crack growth in cortical bone. The crack
interaction with osteon was simulated by cohesive elements inserted along the potential crack path. It was
demonstrated that for given geometry and elastic properties the behavior of the crack approaching osteon
depends on two non-dimensional parameters: the ratios of the osteon and “cement line – osteon” interface
strength and fracture toughness. The proposed model allows to determine the range of the parameters, for
which short cracks are deflected by cement line and long cracks penetrate osteon, as it is observed
experimentally.

Keywords: cortical bone, osteon, crack growth, finite element analysis

1 Introduction A meshfree method has been used in [8] to study crack

The fracture of cortical bone has been studied by
many researchers, since the correct mechanistic models
of bone fracture may help scientist better understand the
variation of bone toughness with age [1]. The bone has a
complex hierarchical microstructure with many
dimensional scales. At the nano-level it consists of the
collagen fibers (50-70 nm in diameter) impregnated
with apatite nanocrystals. These fibers are organized at
micro-level into lamellar structure (3-7 µm thick). At
meso-level interstitial matrix (composed of lamellar
structure) is penetrated by secondary osteons (100-300
mm in diameter), circumferential lamellar rings with
Harvesian canal in the center and cement line at the
interface with interstitial matrix. The damage in bone
occurs at all structural levels [2,3] and understanding of
mechanisms involved in bone fracture at different levels
is necessary.
Many numerical models were developed for
simulation of crack propagation in cortical bone and
interaction with bone microstructure. In [4,5] the
growing crack interaction with osteons was studied
using finite element method and it was found that softer
osteons attracts cracks. The eXtended Finite Element
Method has been used in [6] to study crack growth
human cortical bone. In [7] this approach has been
combined with digital image correlation technique to
represent in numerical model realistic bone
microstructure and experimentally observed strain field
for estimation of bone fracture toughness at micro-level.
propagation through osteons taking into account the
effect of bone remodeling.
In recent years a several studies have been
conducted for the analysis of the fatigue microcracks
accumulation in the cortical bones [9-11]. The studies
reveal that most of the cracks initiated in the interstitial
matrix. As the crack approaches osteon, it may be
stopped by the osteon interface, deflected by osteon
along cement line or penetrate into osteon (see Fig. 1). It
was demonstrated that most short cracks stop at the
osteon boundary. Intermediate cracks were deflected
and propagated along cement line, and only few long
cracks were able to penetrate osteons. It was concluded
[9,10], that while stress concentrations near osteons may
trigger formation of microdamage, osteons also act as
barriers and deflect cracks along their boundaries into
less dangerous direction. And only cracks that are
sufficiently long at the time when they approach osteon
are able to penetrate through it and potentially could
cause bone failure.
In the present work the numerical model of a crack
approaching single osteon is used to investigate the
influence of the osteon interface properties and the
crack length on the possible scenarios of the crack
growth. The main objective of the current study is
determination of the range of material properties of
bone structural components for which the numerically
simulated crack growth path correspond to the
experimentally observed.

1
Professor, tamuzs@pmi.lv
2
Research Scientist, tarasov@pmi.lv
3
Professor, natalia@bridgeport.edu

Figure 1: Microstructure of cortical bone with cracks.
Several types of cracks can be distinguished: a) free
crack; b) crack stopped at cement line; c) crack
deflected by cement line; d) crack penetrated osteon.
2 Materials
The elastic properties of the cortical bone have
been investigated for long time by many researchers
[12,13]. The cortical bone can be considered as fiber
composite with orthotropic constituents, where osteons
play the role of fibers. However, in the current study the
bone is modeled as three-phase material with
homogeneous isotropic elastic phases. The Young’s
moduli of the interstitial matrix and osteons used in
numerical simulations are 20 and 17 GPa respectively.
Little is known about cement line properties, in most
works it is considered softer than osteons [14,15],
therefore Young’s modulus equal 10 GPa was used in
numerical simulations. The Poisson’s ratio for all
constituents equals 0.3.
The next geometrical parameters were used for
osteon numerical model: radius (R) equal 100 µm,
Harvesian canal radius equal 20 µm and cement line
thickness 2 µm. Only two crack lengths were
investigated in this work, the short crack with length
equal 50 µm (0.5 R) and long crack equal 600 µm (6 R).
The scheme of the single osteon loaded in tension with
crack approaching osteon boundary is shown in Fig. 2.
Figure 2: Numerical model geometry: single osteon and
crack stopped at interface. Arrows show potential crack
paths.
elements were inserted along potential crack paths, as it
is shown in Fig. 2 by arrows and in Fig. 3 by thick lines.
The bi-linear cohesive law is defined by two main
parameters: the interface strength σ (maximum normal
or tangential stresses at the crack faces) and energy
release rate G. Since area under traction-separation
curve equal to the energy release rate, the maximum
opening (sliding) displacement δ, where tractions on
element faces are reduced to zero, is related to G and σ
as
δ = 2G / σ . (1)
For simplicity it is assumed that both interface strength
and energy release rate are equal for normal and shear
modes of failure. The quadratic strength criterion was
used for damage initiation and quadratic energy
criterion for damage evolution. The cohesive element
initial stiffness usually has small effect on the crack
propagation, provided that the stiffness is sufficiently
high. In the current model it is assumed that crack may
grow only along “osteon – cement line” interface or
penetrate osteon, as shown in Fig. 3 by thick black lines.

3 umerical model
Two-dimensional finite element model has been
used to simulate the crack penetrating the cement line.
A general purpose finite element code ABAQUS with
built-in cohesive elements was used. The model
consisted of about 10000 triangular 6-noded plain strain
elements. For the cohesive elements formulation simple
bi-linear cohesive law was used. The finite element Figure 3: Finite element mesh around crack tip with
mesh near the crack tip is shown in Fig. 3. The cohesive cohesive elements inserted along potential crack paths.
4 Discussions and results
Considering the crack approaching the interface of
the osteon, it can be assumed that if the strength and
fracture toughness of the osteon are too low, the crack
will always penetrate osteon. On the contrary, in case of
weak interface the crack will be deflected along cement
line. Therefore, the graph with two dimensionless
parameters, σ c ost / τ c cem plotted on the x-axis and
G Ic ost / G IIc cem on y-axis, can be divided into three
zones, as shown in Fig. 4. Here σ c and τ c are the
tensile and shear strengths, GIc and GIIc are the critical
energy release rates for normal and shear failure modes
and superscripts “ost” and “cem” refers to osteon and
cement line interface respectively. In zone I all cracks
will penetrate osteon, while in zone III cracks will grow
along interface. And there is intermediate zone II, where
both scenarios are possible. As it will be shown next, for
the material parameters in this zone short cracks
typically are deflected by cement line, while longer
cracks may penetrate osteon. The exact boundaries of
the zone II are most likely depend on the geometrical
parameters of the typical osteon and elastic properties of
the bone material.
Since no reliable data exist for the strength and
fracture toughness of bone on micro level (for the
osteons and cement line), quite arbitrary values were
used for numerical simulations and only relative values
for osteon and cement line interface properties will be
presented here. Different combinations of cohesive
elements properties were used in simulations, for both
short and long cracks (50 and 600 µm respectively), and
the type of failure (osteon penetration or interface
debonding) has been recorded. Then all combinations of
cohesive properties were divided into three groups: both
short and long cracks penetrated osteon, both cracks
deflected and mixed type (short crack deflected, while
long penetrated osteon).
Figure 4: Possible crack growth scenario as function of
interface properties.
The results of simulations are presented in Fig. 5
with black markers showing mixed type crack behavior.
The results demonstrate that only for relatively narrow
range of cohesive parameters mixed type crack behavior,
which has been observed experimentally, is possible.
For all other variations of parameters cracks will always
penetrate osteons or will grow along cement line.
It should be noted, that in current study the same
properties were used for normal and shear failure modes
of osteon and cement line. While this does not affect the
crack penetrated osteon due to symmetrical geometry of
the considered problem, the cracks deflected along
cement line are generally loaded under mixed-mode
conditions. Finite element analysis show that for the
deflected cracks the mode mixity, defined as
ϕ = tan −1 (σ τ / σ n ) , (2)
where σ τ and σ n stand for tangential and normal
tractions at interface, was in the range of 90 to 45
degrees.
5 Conclusion
The crack growth in the cortical bone tissue was
studied in the current work. The crack interaction with
osteon was simulated numerically using two-
dimensional finite element analysis with cohesive
elements along potential crack paths. As it is known
from previous experimental studies [9,10], the crack
approaching osteon may stop at the interface, deflect
along the cement line or penetrate inside osteon. In this
work it was demonstrated, that two non-dimensional
parameters controls the crack behavior: the ratio of
osteon tissue tensile strength to “osteon – cement line”
shear strength and the ratio of corresponding energy
Figure 5: Results of simulations: crack behavior for
different combinations of cohesive parameters.
 release rates. Only for relatively narrow range of these [10] Mohsin, S., O’Brien, F.J., Lee, T.C., Osteonal crack
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[11] O’Brien, F.J., Taylor, D., Lee, T.C., Bone as a
cracks either deflected or penetrate into osteon.
composite material: The role of osteons as barriers
The proposed numerical model gives additional
to crack growth in compact bone, International
insights into the microcracks growth and interaction
Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 29, p. 1051, 2007.
with osteons in cortical bones. It allows to determine the
possible relations between different material properties [12] Knets, I.V., Mechanics of biological tissues. A
of the bone microstructural components, which are very review, Mechanics of composite materials, Vol. 13,
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[13] Rho, J.-Y., Tsui, T.Y., Pharr, G.M., Elastic
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