IS SYNTHETIC COMPOSITE BONE A SUBSTITUTE FOR NATURAL BONE IN SCREW BENDING TESTS

摘要

Composite replica bones have been used extensively for biomechanical studies. These studies normally rely upon the overall tensile, compressive, and bending strength of large replica bones, such as the tibia and femur. In this study, highly localized behavior of composite bone was scrutinized by examining the material's response to cortical screws in bending. Of interest was localized deformation of the composite material as compared to the response of natural bone under similar loading conditions. Cortical screw deflection in a laminated composite bone was compared to deflection in a bovine bone under quasi-static loading. The laminated composite bone consisted of short glass fiber reinforced epoxy as a cortical bone substitute, while polyurethane foam was used as a cancellous bone substitute. A new laser projection method was used to make comparative measurements of the slope of the screw head near to the applied load. Initial results indicate that composite bone is a reliable substitute for natural bone in quasi-static studies of cortical screw deflection.