Mechanical responses of hydrated and dehydrated cortical bones to microindentation

We report on responses of hydrated and dehydrated cortical bone tissues to mechanical loading applied by a Vickers indenter to understand the influence of water on mechanical properties of bone. The Vickers indentations were section-scanned using confocal laser scanning microscopy to understand the deformation and damage mechanisms of bone tissues. The observation of confocal laser scanning microscopy shows the fundamental indentation responses for both the hydrated and dehydrated bone tissues were plastic deformation. No visible fracture was observed in the Vickers indentation patterns in the hydrated bone tissue, while microcracks occurred in the dehydrated bone tissue. This indicates that the dehydration resulted in increased brittleness of the bone tissue. The Vickers hardness values of dehydrated bone tissue were significantly higher than those of hydrated bone tissue at any applied loads (p