Fracture characterisation of bone-cement bonded joints under mode I loading

[Display omitted] •Bone-to-bone polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) based cement joints were elaborated.•Cortical bone tissue was used due its relevance in the interaction with prosthetic systems.•Specimens were submitted to mode I loading using the double cantilever beam test.•Stable fracture propagation was observed in the designed specimens under quasi-static loading.•Strain energy release rate was evaluated using the compliance-based beam method.•Clear plateaux were obtained in the R-curves demonstrating the adequacy of the adopted procedure. Over the years, many techniques have been developed for the stabilisation of bone fractures. The study of the adhesion of bone-to-bone cement is an important step towards the development of new immobilization systems. Although bone cement has been used for more than fifty years, very few studies have been performed regarding the evaluation of fracture properties. In this work, numerical and experimental investigations were conducted to evaluate the strain energy release rate under mode I loading in a bone-cement bonded joint, using the Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) test. Cohesive zone laws were also measured combining the finite element method with non-linear elastic fracture mechanics. This has been made in a cortical bone bonded joint with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). Consistent results have been obtained regarding fracture toughness in a widely used bone-to-bone cement joint in many biomedical applications.