Investigation of piezoelectric anisotropy of bovine cortical bone at an ultrasound frequency by coupling an experiment and a simulation.

An investigation of the piezoelectric anisotropy of bovine cortical bone at 1 MHz was attempted by coupling data obtained from an experiment and a simulation. In the experiment, a piezoelectric cell (PE-cell) was used as an ultrasound receiver. In the PE-cell, the cortical bone disk, which was cut in the direction perpendicular to the bone axis, was electrically shielded. The directivity of the PE-cell was measured at 0°-22.5° and was compared to four simulated results using the piezoelectric finite-difference time-domain method. It was shown that the piezoelectric signal in the bone could be generated by a transverse ultrasound wave.