Crack Propagation in the Cortical Surface of Chicken Bones: Bending Test

Name: Elana Cooper

Class: BE 210

Full Text

The aim of this experiment is to test the validity of this microcrack-based toughening mechanism of cortical bone by conducting fracture toughness tests and comparing these results to failure data of chicken bones from previous experiment 4.

1. Objectives

• Understand how trends in crack growth behavior relate to mechanical fracture
• Determine the fracture properties in the cortical surface of chicken bones for both experimental samples: failure force, failure displacement and failure strength.
• Apply structural mechanics theory for biomechanical measurements of strength in the chicken bone samples.

2. Hypothesis

• The chicken bones with a central crack propagated to a specific distance (experimental 1) will have a significantly greater failure toughness than the chicken bones whose central crack was just initiated (experimental 2) during the 3-point bending test and subjected to a constant load.

[Both experimental subjects’ fracture strengths will be significantly lower than that of control specimens whose is subjected to a constant load without initiation or propagation (previous experiment 4 results- can’t compare results because loading speeds differ, 1.0 mm min^-1 vs. 0.05 mm min^-1, but same fracture properties apply]