Investigation of trabecular bone tissue mechanics with regard to visco-elasto-plastic response

A visco-elasto-plastic constitutive model is provided for the investigation of the mechanical inelastic behaviour of the trabecular bone. The visco-elastic response of the tissue is defined adopting a linear visco-elastic model. An elasto-plastic model with hardening rule is assumed to interpret the response of the tissue over the elastic limit. Parameters definition is provided, according to the constitutive model proposed, by minimising the discrepancy between results from model results and experimental data. A specific optimisation procedure is adopted at the purpose. Experimental data of animal specimens are considered. In particular, the viscous parameters evaluation is performed using data from compressive creep tests and compressive strain-driven tests at constant strain rate. For the plastic parameters monotonic compressive tests spanning a strain range over the yield strain limit are considered. Diagrams show the comparison between model results and experimental data leading to the evaluation of the reliability of the analysis performed.