Inelastic Analysis of Fracture Propagation in Distal Radius

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the description of progressive fracture in distal radius in the event of a fall onto an outstretched hand. The inception of fracture, which involves formation of a macrocrack in the cortical tissue, is defined by invoking a macroscopic failure criterion that accounts for inherent anisotropy of the material. The subsequent propagation of damage is described by employing a homogenization procedure in which the average properties of cortical tissue intercepted by a macrocrack are established. The framework is verified by performing a series of nonlinear finite element analyses. In particular, the experimental tests recently conducted by the authors and their colleagues on a number of cadaver radii under boundary conditions leading to Colles’ fracture are simulated, and the results are compared with the experimental outcome.