Fatigue characterization of a polymer foam to use as a cancellous bone analog material in the assessment of orthopaedic devices

Abstract

Analog materials are used as a substitute to cancellous bone for in vitro biomechanical tests due to their uniformity, consistency in properties and availability. To date, only the static material properties of these materials have been assessed, although they are often used in fatigue tests. Cancellous bone exhibits complex material behavior when subjected to fatigue loads, including modulus degradation, accumulation of permanent strain and increasing hysteresis. Analog materials should exhibit similar fatigue behavior to cancellous bone if they are to be used in cyclic loading tests. In our study, a polymer foam (commercial name HEREX® C70.55) has been studied for its static and fatigue behavior and compared with that of cancellous bone. In compression, the foam exhibited qualitatively similar mechanical behavior, but the degree of modulus degradation and accumulation of permanent strain was lower than expected for cancellous bone. In general, the tensile properties of the foam were greater than found in compression, the opposite to the mechanical behavior of cancellous bone. The methodology employed here could form the basis of selecting suitable analog materials for cancellous bone in the future.