Bone is a hierarchical composite material featuring a cell-seeded mineralized collagen matrix. It is designed for mechanical support, metabolizing minerals and storing bone marrow. Its strength depends on the amount of mineral measured by clinical densitometry, but also on the micromechanical properties of the bone hierarchical organization. A good understanding has been reached for elastic properties on several length scales, but up to now there is a lack of data with respect to plasticity at the lower length scales. An experimental setup for micromechanical testing allowing a straightforward interpretation of the data due to the uniaxial stress state is micropillar compression. Micron sized pillars were produced by milling of the material using a focused Ga-ion beam and compressed uniaxially to extract mechanical properties such as yield stress and strength.
展开▼
