Elastic coefficients of animal bone.

The elastic stiffness coefficients of dried bovine phalanx and femur and of fresh bovine phalanx were measured by an ultrasonic technique. An analysis of the crystallographic structure of the principal components of bone and its piezoelectric and pyroelectric behavior showed that bone is a texture that has the same elastic coeffcient matrix as a hexagonal single crystal. The five elastic stiffness coefficients of fresh phalanx are: C(1l), 1.97; C(12), 1.21; C(13), 1.26; C(33), 3.20; and C(44), 0.54 (all in units of 10(11) dynes per square centimeter). Value of axial and transverse Young's and shear moduli, compressibility, and the three Poisson's ratios were calculated.