Use of Acoustic Emission to Characterize Focal and Diffuse Microdamage in Bone

Abstract

Fatigue of cortical bone results in the initiation, accumulation, and propagation of microdamage. AE techniques were adopted to monitor damage generated during ex-vivo tension-tension fatigue testing of cortical bone. The primary objectives were to determine the sensitivity of AE in detecting microdamage in cortical bone and to elucidate mechanisms guiding the onset of microdamage. Fatigue cycle data and histological data show that AE techniques are more sensitive than modulus reduction techniques in detecting incipient damage in cortical bone. Confocal microscopy revealed the ability of AE to detect crack lengths and damage zone dimensions as small as 25 μm. Furthermore, measured signal parameters such as AE events, event amplitude, duration, and energy suggest that AE techniques can detect and distinguish microdamage mechanisms spatially and temporally in bone. As fatigue processes continue, AE increases in terms of number of events, event intensities and spatial distribution. Diffuse damage appears to be a precursor to the development of linear microcracks. The spatial and temporal sequence of AE events enables differentiation between linear microcracks and more diffuse damage.