A general method for the determination of the local orthotropic directions of heterogeneous materials: application to bone structures using µCT images

Christophe Cluzel (1) , Rachele Allena (2)

1 LMT - Laboratoire de Mécanique et Technologie
2 Institut de Biomecanique Humaine Georges Charpak

To assess the degree (i.e., isotropy, transverse isotropy, or orthotropy) and the directions of anisotropy of a three-dimensional structure, information about its mesostructure is necessary. Usually, a topological analysis of computed tomography or microcomputed tomography images is performed and requires an interpretation of the constitutive elements of the three-dimensional structure, which may lead to a simplistic description of the geometry. In this paper we propose an alternative technique based on a geometric tensor and we use it to analyze 38 representative elementary volumes extracted from 24 specimens of cortical bone in a human femur whose geometries have been reconstructed via microcomputed tomography images.

Domaines: Ingénierie biomédicale; Biomécanique [physics.med-ph]; Vibrations [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]; Matériaux

Christophe Cluzel, Rachele Allena. A general method for the determination of the local orthotropic directions of heterogeneous materials: application to bone structures using µCT images. Mathematics and Mechanics of Complex Systems, 2018, 6 (4), pp.353-367. ⟨hal-02378859⟩