There are obvious advantages to investigating the mechanical behavior of trabecular bone using microstructural models incorporating trabecular structure; however, they quickly become very complex and computationally intensive, even with simple models for tissue behavior. Alternatively, continuum damage mechanics (CDM) models offer the potential for characterizing the damage accumulation process and the risk of fracture in real skeletal structures. We implemented a phenomenological constitutive model based on CDM, along with a computational solution scheme, to describe the elastic and inelastic response of human vertebral trabecular bone to applied loading. Simulations using computational methods demonstrate that it is possible to obtain estimates of all model parameters from experimental data and to characterize the experimental response. The model successfully predicted damage measures, such as evolving and accumulated modulus degradation, despite the complicated nature of the material response and the limited amount of data for multiaxial material characterization. The ability to model the basic features of the response and reasonably predict the highly nonlinear behavior of low-density heterogeneous vertebral trabecular bone allows us to move closer to the goal of predicting the in vivo response or the risk of fracture in a clinical setting.
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