Recent Advance in Evaluation Methods for Characterizing Mechanical Properties of Bone

Skeletal biomechanics focuses on both transient and long-term effects of bone stress, using the basic theory and method of material mechanics, elasto-plasticity theory, and fracture mechanics,is considered to be one of the most important branches in biomechanics. In order to achieve complete and comprehensive evaluation of skeletal biomechanics, researchers developed a variety of levels of skeletal biomechanical evaluation methods, including mechanical testing, theoretical research, microstructure research and finite element analyses. At present, most of the mechanical evaluation methods were performed by a combination of mechanical tests and finite element (FE) simulation studies for the evaluation of mechanical properties. This study summerized the research in multi-level mechanical test methods, different research methods of microstructure, and the reconstruction of various FE skeletal models to study bone mechanics. The mentioned methods and techniques can be served as the basis for systematic studies of the biomechanical properties of bones.