Trabeculae consist of vertical plate-like struts and horizontal rod-like structures
that act as columns and beams. When you’re young, the trabeculae in your
bones are dense with these struts and structures. But bones become less dense
as you age, which is why breaks are more common among older people. The
researchers wanted to see how much impact the two types of trabeculae had
on strength.
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strength, but horizontal beams make bones durable over the long-term. To
demonstrate this, they created a 3D printed model of trabeculae (shown above).
The team showed that the 3D-printed trabeculae had similar mechanical
properties to real bone. They then made a fully synthetic structure inspired by
human bone and adjusted the horizontal beam thickness and found that a 30
percent thicker beam resulted in a 100-fold increase in load-bearing capacity,
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contributor to strength.
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of 3D-printed objects. That means we could eventually produce large
3D-printed structures that are durable and light enough to be transported from
place to place and could also make those Martian habitats a bit more sturdy.
And it could even help us better understand the changes happening in bones as
they age, potentially leading to new treatments that reduce breaks.
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