Complex viscoelastic moduli of bovine bone

In order to be able to predict the dynamic response of structures of bone, it is necessary to know the complete viscoelastic stiffness matrix for the material over a range of frequencies. In this paper, complex dynamic viscoelastic moduli of bovine bone are determined over a four octave range from 1 to 16 kHz. It is confirmed that the bone is a cylindrically anisotropic material; that its properties are influenced by moisture content; that its moduli decreased in magnitude as specimen orientation is changed from longitudinal to tangential to radial; and that bone is a linear viscoelastic material over the range of strains tested. It is also shown that the three element viscoelastic model does not truly represent the bone material over the range of frequencies tested.