Resumen: In the last decade, the topic of damage and fracture of biological and biomedical materials not only became one of the central research areas in the healthcare engineering, but also drew attention of specialists in mechanics of materials and fracture. One of the motivations behind these developments is a continuing increase in the use of medical devices made of various materials that are exposed to challenging loading and environmental conditions. Many of them should have significant levels of durability to avoid recurring surgical interventions (typical examples being implants for hip and knee replacements or dental implants). A lack of understanding of their responses to specific conditions and interaction with biological environment can result in malfunctioning and failures or traumas to surrounding tissues. The typical application problems are additionally complicated by insufficient knowledge of mechanical behaviour of biomaterials at various length and time scales and under different loading conditions including their fracture and fatigue.
These types of application presuppose the understanding of properties and performance of two classes of materials – natural (biomaterials) and engineering (biomedical materials), as well as their interaction at interfaces between, on the one hand, life tissues (or organs) and, on the other hand, implants and prostheses. Among engineering materials, used in such applications, are familiar metals and alloys, ceramics, polymers and composites. Their properties and performance seem to be well studied; still, biomedical applications are characterised by rather specific usability envelopes as well as, in most cases, additional constraints such as non-toxicity (biocompatibility) and/or resistance to harsh physiological environments. In some cases, a requirement, opposite to structural integrity, is needed, e.g. controlled degradation for scaffolds and stents... Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.1016/j.engfracmech.2020.107067 Año: 2021 Publicado en: ENGINEERING FRACTURE MECHANICS 241, 107067 (2021), [2 pp] ISSN: 0013-7944 Factor impacto JCR: 4.898 (2021) Categ. JCR: MECHANICS rank: 19 / 138 = 0.138 (2021) - Q1 - T1 Factor impacto CITESCORE: 7.8 - Materials Science (Q1) - Engineering (Q1)