Residual stress around the cortical surface in bovine femoral diaphysis.

Residual stress in living tissue plays an important role in mechanical strength. We have reported that residual stress exists in the bone tissue of a rabbit's tibiofibula. The purpose of this study is to measure the residual stress around the outer cortical region of bovine femoral diaphysis and to discuss the distribution of the stress. This work proposed the sin(2) psi method of X-ray diffraction to the measurement of residual stresses in bone tissue. In this method, residual stress can be estimated from the variation in the interplanar spacings orientated to a number of directions without the lattice strain in the stress direction. Four-point bending tests of strip specimens taken from bovine femoral diaphysis were carried out during X-ray irradiation in advance. In the proximal, middle, and distal sections of bovine femoral diaphyses, the residual stresses at the cortical surface were measured using characteristic Mo-Kalpha X-rays. The bending tests of strip specimens with X-ray irradiation showed that the method could reliably estimate residual stresses in the bone tissue. The residual stress of the bone axial direction was larger than that of the circumferential direction. The stresses in the middle part of five diaphyses along the bone axial direction were tensile. The maximum stress was 162 MPa at the lateral position and the minimum was 78 MPa at the posterior position. The residual stress in the bone axial direction varies around the circumferential region. In addition, the bone axial distributions of residual stresses were different in the proximal, middle, and distal sections of the individual femur. Furthermore, it was confirmed that residual stress in the bone tissue was released by the cutting out of the specimen. The residual stresses in bone tissue could be measured by this method. The results show that residual stress in the bone axial direction at the cortical surface in bovine femoral diaphysis is tensile and varies around the circumferential region.