Research Of Electrostriction In Bone

The electromechanical behavior of bone, called stress generated potentials, includes piezoelectric effect and streaming potentials. In general, the deformation of bone cantilever under uniform electric field is caused by the piezoelectricity which is the basis of many researches on bone. However, as a second order effect, the electrostriction and converse piezoelectricity occur simultaneously in dielectric and there is no research on the electrostriction of bovine bone till now. In this paper, the electrostriction of bone is studied through experimental method.Non-contact electrodes were used for loading uniform electric field to a bone specimen. The microstructure texture on the specimen top surface was taken by a digital microscope and image correlation technique was used for the calculation of the bending displacement.In order to measure the bending deformation of the bone specimen under electric field, the direction and voltage of the electric field were changed. The results show that the bending deflections of the bone cantilevers subjected to an electric field are independent of its direction and the displacements are proportional to the square of the applied voltage which means that the deformation is caused by the electrostriction of bone. The behavior of the bending deformation may be due to the attraction between the charged electrode and the electric charges in the bulk of bone. The specimen is equivalent to a cantilever subjected to a uniform load and the maximum strain is calculated.The displacement of specimens with different thicknesses is also measured and the elastic modulus and moment of inertia were referenced to the analysis of the uniform load which the specimen subjected under the electric field. The loads concentrate together and are also proportional to the square of the applied voltage.