Technology and health care : official journal of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine
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Technol Health Care · Jan 2004
Effect of strain rate on tensile properties of sheep disc anulus fibrosus.
We investigated the effect of loading rate on tensile properties of sheep bone-anulus-bone specimens in axial direction. Disc anulus Samples with adjacent bone attachments were prepared from lateral, posterior and anterior regions of sheep lumbar spinal segments. The specimens were then tested at different strain rates under non-destructive cyclic tensile loading followed by destructive tensile loading. ⋯ However, there was a significant increase in the modulus at linear region as strain rate increased. Two major modes of failure were observed; rupture in the anulus mid-substance and at the anulus-endplate junction. The former failure was more frequent with no clear pattern across strain rates and locations, while the latter failure at anulus-endplate junction occurred primarily at slow strain rates.