J. Phys. IV France 105 (2003) 273
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:20030197

Cosserat moduli of anisotropic cancellous bone: A micromechanical analysis

J. Fatemi¹, P.R. Onck², G. Poort¹ and F. Van Keulen<sup>1

1</sup>  Structural Optimization and Computational Mechanics, Faculty of Design, Engineering and Production, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 2, 2628 Delft, The Netherlands
²  Micromechanics of Materials, Department of Applied Physics, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 Groningen, The Netherlands

Abstract
A micromechanical-based approach is proposed to quantify the effective (in the macroscopic sense) elastic constants of Cosserat materials. The material under investigation (cancellous bone) is cellular and classically elastic at the microscopic level and assumed to be dense Cosserat elastic at the macroscopic level. A homogenization procedure is applied to determine the effective constitutive coefficients of the macroscopic Cosserat medium. The finite element method is used to solve the necessary boundary value problems. The proposed approach is applied to determine the effective constitutive coefficients of two-dimensional cancellous bone. Preliminary results will be shown.

© EDP Sciences 2003