Insight into the structure-function relationship of the bone lamellar unit through Finite Element modelling based on high-frequency SAM data

摘要

The lamellar unit (LU) is the essential building block of lamellar bone at the micrometer scale. We propose a finite element model of the LU based on the well-accepted plywood structure. 1.2 GHz scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) on femur sections provides realistic elastic stiffness parameters for the model. Numerical homogenization is used to derive the effective stiffness tensor at the LU scale and the result is validated by using 200 MHz SAM data from the same site. The quality of the homogenization procedure is assessed. Our results indicate that only an asymmetric twisted plywood structure of the LU can explain the experimentally observed tissue anisotropy at the LU scale.