Towards modelling of a trabecular bone

Trabecular bone (lightweight spongy bone) comprises of a complex arrangement of plates and struts at micro level that make it anisotropic. Osteoporosity (leading to fracture) is a common problem in old age which makes the bone weak due to increased porosity. Considerable two dimensional data in the form of images is available on the porous structure of the bone, however this needs to be related to the macro-level anisotropic properties. This preliminary study aims to examine whether topological anisotropy can be related to elastic anisotropy. Simple three dimensional structured meshes comprising of elements with different material properties are used to simulate the porous structure. Homogenised elastic properties are evaluated and these are compared with a two dimensional topology anisotropy indicators. For the simple problems considered it appears that topological anisotropy cannot be directly linked to elastic anisotropy.