Experimental and theoretical analysis of water uptake and swelling kinetics of trabecular tissue from human femur head: Some preliminary results

In this paper we firstly illustrate the measurement of the swelling of a single trabecula from human femur heads during water imbibition. Moreover, since the swelling is caused by water diffusing from external surfaces to the core of the sample, by measuring the sample swelling over time, we obtained direct information about the transport of fluids through the intimate constituents of bone, where the mineralization process takes place. We developed an apparatus to measure the free expansion of the tissue during the imbibition. In particular, we measured the swelling along three natural axes (length L, width W, and thickness T) of the trabecula. To this aim, a 3D analytical model of the water uptake by the sample was performed according to Fickian transport mechanism. The results have been utilized to fit the measured swelling along the three sample directions (L, W, T) and the apparent diffusion coefficients DT, DW, and DL. © 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.