The Mechanical Properties Cranial Bone

Linear and depressed skull fractures are frequent mechanisms of head injury and are often associated with traumatic brain injury. Accurate knowledge of the fracture of cranial bone can provide insight into the prevention of skull fracture injuries. A set of cranial bone specimens were extracted from 8 crania and, after !CT imaging, the specimens were tested in a three-point bend set-up at dynamic speeds. Important mechanical and morphological properties were calculated for each specimen. The correlations between those parameters were examined statistically. Testing speed, strain rate, cranial sampling position and intercranial variation were found to have a significant effect on some or all of the computed mechanical parameters.