Biomechanical behavior of canine tibia based on bending tests and numerical analysis

The purpose of this study was to evaluate some of the mechanical properties of adult canine bones (tibia) using numerical analysis and mechanical bending tests and to draw a conclusion for the rehabilitation process in the presence of stem cells. The mechanical properties are determined on healthy canine tibia and on tibia with two types of induced defects (mechanical dislocation of bone mass in the proximal tibia head and defect treated with hydroxyapatite scaffolds loaded with osteoblaste of human origin). The bone samples were submitted to bending test. In order to have a comparison value for the test results, a geometrical model of the tibia has been developed and analyzed using FEA software. The boundary conditions of the model were similar to the real conditions of the experiment. The numerical analysis shows also the stress and strain values in the defect area and how much these values are influenced by the presence of scaffolds.