Fracture of human femur tissue monitored by acoustic emission sensors.

The study describes the acoustic emission (AE) activity during human femur tissue fracture. The specimens were fractured in a bending-torsion loading pattern with concurrent monitoring by two AE sensors. The number of recorded signals correlates well with the applied load providing the onset of micro-fracture at approximately one sixth of the maximum load. Furthermore, waveform frequency content and rise time are related to the different modes of fracture (bending of femur neck or torsion of diaphysis). The importance of the study lies mainly in two disciplines. One is that, although femurs are typically subjects of surgical repair in humans, detailed monitoring of the fracture with AE will enrich the understanding of the process in ways that cannot be achieved using only the mechanical data. Additionally, from the point of view of monitoring techniques, applying sensors used for engineering materials and interpreting the obtained data pose additional difficulties due to the uniqueness of the bone structure.

Wave dispersion and attenuation on human femur tissue.

Cortical bone is a highly heterogeneous material at the microscale and has one of the most complex structures among materials. Application of elastic wave techniques to this material is thus very challenging. In such media the initial excitation energy goes into the formation of elastic waves of different modes. Due to "dispersion", these modes tend to separate according to the velocities of the frequency components. This work demonstrates elastic wave measurements on human femur specimens. The aim of the study is to measure parameters like wave velocity, dispersion and attenuation by using broadband acoustic emission sensors. First, four sensors were placed at small intervals on the surface of the bone to record the response after pencil lead break excitations. Next, the results were compared to measurements on a bulk steel block which does not exhibit heterogeneity at the same wave lengths. It can be concluded that the microstructure of the tissue imposes a dispersive behavior for frequencies below 1 MHz and care should be taken for interpretation of the signals. Of particular interest are waveform parameters like the duration, rise time and average frequency, since in the next stage of research the bone specimens will be fractured with concurrent monitoring of acoustic emission.