Experimental construction of the fabric tensor for trabecular bone tissue

V. Tverier, A. Kichenko, Y. Nyashin, V. Lokhov

Abstract: Trabecular bone tissue is a heterogeneous, anisotropic material. Consideration of structural features of the dentofacial and musculoskeletal human units is one of the main problems of contemporary biomechanics.
Heterogeneity of spongy structure can be described by methods of quantitative stereology. At the same time, structural features of the bone tissue are described by means of the fabric tensor. The fabric tensor is symmetric positively defined second rank tensor; it can be used for quantitative description of cancellous bone structure. The example of its construction is given; the measuring procedure for stereological investigations is presented.
Procedure of experimental obtaining of three-dimensional (cubical) cancellous bone tissue is elaborated; these specimens will be applicable for fabric tensor construction in future.

Keywords: anisotropy tensor; Bone tissue structure; fabric ellipse; fabric tensor; muffle furnace; stereology; trabecular (cancellous) bone tissue; Wolffs law

Date published: 2015-12-10