Age aspects of the torsional strength of compact bone tissue

The variation of the strength of specimens of human tibial compact bone tissue with age has been investigated. It is shown that the torsional strength _i ^* increases sharply in childhood, reaches a maximum at age 25–35, and then gradually falls. There is a correlation between _i ^* and the porosity of the bone tissue. The mode of fracture of the bone tissue has been studied in relation to its orientation with respect to the principal axes of anisotropy.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, Riga. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 3, pp. 493–503, May–June, 1975.