Electro-mechanics of bone remodelling

Clinically, it is well known that an electromagnetic field applied to bones hastens the healing process. This is the main motivation behind the present theoretical contribution concerned with the introduction of damage in the electromechanical model previously stated by Demiray and Dost [H. Demiray, S. Dost, The effect of quadrupole on bone remodelling, Int. J. Eng. Sci. 3 (1996) 257–268].The interaction between electro-mechanical and chemical fields are known to play an important role in the regeneration, growth and maintenance of our skeleton, as well as damage that occurs naturally when the bone is overloaded during day-to-day activities or by cellular activity of resorption.As a result, the propagation of a longitudinal wave in wet bone is considered as an illustrative example. It is shown that in addition to given electric field, both damage and damage gradient affects the reactive mass density of the bone solid matrix.