The damage and healing of bone in the disuse state under mechanical and electro-magnetic loadings

The damage behaviour of bone tissues has attracted many interests of scientists and engineers due to it can repair itself. This renewing process is performed by bone remodelling. In the present paper, we establish a mechanism-based damage model to rationalize the damage evolution law of bone under simultaneously applied mechanical and electromagnetic fields. An evolutionary law of bone damage and the corresponding modelling methodology are presented to analyze the complicated damage/repair behaviour of bone under multi-fields. The model for bone injury under disuse status is established. Then the numerical examples are considered to verify the present theoretical model and the influence of those mechanical and non-mechanical factors on the bone damage and healing are simulated based on the new damage model. It is shown by result that compared with mechanical stimulation, electromagnetic field is a kind of more reliable method for improving disuse osteoporosis with relatively small side effect.