Viscoelastic dissipation in compact bone: implications for stress-induced fluid flow in bone

Viscoelastic properties of wet and dry human compact bone were studied in torsion and in bending for both the longitudinal and transverse directions at frequencies from 5 mHz to 5 kHz in bending to more than 50 kHz in torsion. Two series of tests were done for different longitudinal and transverse specimens from a human tibia. Wet bone exhibited a larger viscoelastic damping tan delta (phase between stress and strain sinusoids) than dry bone over a broad range of frequency. All the results had in common a relative minimum in tan delta over a frequency range, 1 to 100 Hz, which is predominantly contained in normal activities. This behavior is inconsistent with an optimal "design" for bone as a shock absorber. There was no definitive damping peak in the range of frequencies explored, which could be attributed to fluid flow in the porosity of bone.