Measuring and modelling the mechanical and failure behaviour of bone

加拿大人的健康和安全是一项基本优先事项。加拿大政府决定将“健康及相关生命科学和技术”确定为联邦研究资助的四个优先领域之一，这突显了其社会重要性。由于骨骼起着如此重要的结构和保护作用，拟议的研究计划将通过提高我们测量和模拟骨骼的机械和破坏行为的能力，为这些联邦目标做出贡献。在这个长期目标范围内，将调查两个具体的研究方向。第一种是考虑松质骨的结构效应。松质骨也被称为骨小梁或海绵骨，是主要位于长骨末端或椎骨内的骨板和支柱（称为骨小梁）的网络。松质骨的数量和排列——被称为“结构”——随着年龄或骨质疏松症等疾病的变化而变化。这些变化增加了一个人骨折的易感性。松质骨的高分辨率三维图像将用于创建能够阐明建筑与机械完整性之间重要关系的数值模型。提高我们对这一领域的理解将使医学界能够更准确地测量骨骼的机械完整性，这对于监测和评估某人患与年龄或疾病相关的骨折的风险至关重要。****第二项研究将调查骨骼对利器创伤的反应。法医调查人员和医学界经常使用工具痕迹和骨折表面来估计造成伤害所需的力量。到目前为止，这些信息是定性的。劳伦森大学目前正在开发一种新的实验装置，用于模拟可重复的、仪器化的锐力撞击。通过在规定条件下进行模拟撞击，本研究将为法医调查人员提供更严格的方法来确定冲击力的定量估计。具体来说，将开发数值模型来将撞击的速度和力量与所产生的损伤模式联系起来。这项研究将提高我们对皮质骨失败率相关机制的基本理解，并提供一个强大的研究工具。******这种多管齐下的方法将加深我们对骨骼力学和破坏行为的了解，并提高我们建模和预测这些行为的能力。将这方面的知识传递给医疗、医疗法律和其他社区，将使这些信息能够用于改善加拿大人的健康和安全

The health and safety of Canadians is a fundamental priority.  Its societal importance is underscored by the Canadian government's decision to identify "health and related life sciences and technologies" as one of the four priority areas for federal research funding.   Since the skeleton plays such an important structural and protective role, the proposed research program would contribute to these federal objectives by improving our ability to measure and model the mechanical and failure behaviour of bone.  ***Within this long-term objective, two specific lines of research would be investigated.   The first would consider the structural effects of cancellous bone.  Also referred to as trabecular or spongy bone, cancellous bone is a network of bony plates and struts (referred to as trabeculae) located primarily in the ends of long bones or within vertebrae.  Both the amount and the arrangement of cancellous bone -referred to as the "architecture"- change as a function of age or disease such as osteoporosis.   These changes increase a person's susceptibility to bone fracture.  High-resolution three-dimension images of cancellous bone will be used to create numerical models capable of illuminating the important relationship between architecture and mechanical integrity.  Improving our understanding in this area will allow the medical community to more accurately measure the mechanical integrity of bone, which is critical for monitoring and assessing someone's risk of suffering an age- or disease-related fracture.****The second line of research would investigate the response of bone to sharp-force trauma.  Forensic investigators and the medicolegal community routinely use tool marks and bone fracture surfaces to estimate the amount of force required to create an injury.   To date, this information is qualitative.   A new experimental device for simulating repeatable, instrumented sharp-force impacts is currently being developed at Laurentian University.   By performing simulated impacts, under prescribed conditions, this research will provide forensic investigators with a more rigorous methodology for determining quantitative estimates of impact force.  Specifically, numerical models will be developed to relate the rate and force of an impact to the resulting injury patterns.   This research will both improve our fundamental understanding of the rate-dependent failure mechanisms of cortical bone and provide a powerful investigative tool.******This multi-pronged approach will deepen our knowledge of the mechanical and failure behaviour of bone, as well as improve our ability to model and predict these behaviours.   The transfer of this knowledge to the medical, medicolegal, and other communities, will allow this information to be applied to improve the health and safety of Canadians.**