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Aging and fracture of human cortical bone and tooth dentin

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Abstract

Mineralized tissues, such as bone and tooth dentin, serve as structural materials in the human body and, as such, have evolved to resist fracture. In assessing their quantitative fracture resistance or toughness, it is important to distinguish between intrinsic toughening mechanisms, which function ahead of the crack tip, such as plasticity in metals, and extrinsic mechanisms, which function primarily behind the tip, such as crack bridging in ceramics. Bone and dentin derive their resistance to fracture principally from extrinsic toughening mechanisms, which have their origins in the hierarchical microstructure of these mineralized tissues. Experimentally, quantification of these toughening mechanisms requires a crack-growth resistance approach, which can be achieved by measuring the crack-driving force (e.g., the stress intensity) as a function of crack extension (“R-curve approach”). Here this methodology is used to study the effect of aging on the fracture properties of human cortical bone and human dentin in order to discern the microstructural origins of toughness in these materials.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Kurt J. Koester, Joel W. Ager III & Robert O. Ritchie

  2. Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Robert O. Ritchie

Authors
  1. Kurt J. Koester
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  2. Joel W. Ager III
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  3. Robert O. Ritchie
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Correspondence to Robert O. Ritchie.

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Koester, K.J., Ager, J.W. & Ritchie, R.O. Aging and fracture of human cortical bone and tooth dentin. JOM 60, 33–38 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-008-0068-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-008-0068-1

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