The effect of indentation-induced microcracks on the elastic modulus of hydroxyapatite

The presence of microcracks in materials affects a wide range of mechanical properties including elastic modulus, Poisson’s ratio, fracture strength, and fracture toughness. The microcrack-induced reductions of the Young’s modulus, E, and Poisson’s ratio, υ, are functions of the size, geometry, and number density of microcracks. In this study, an array of Vickers indentation-induced microcracks was placed on the surfaces of two hydroxyapatite (HA) specimens with totals of 391 and 513 indentations per specimen. This study tests the validity of theoretical studies of microcrack damage-induced changes in E and υ, where the changes are expressed either by (i) the volumetric crack number density, N and (ii) the crack damage parameter, e. All elasticity measurements were done via resonant ultrasound spectroscopy. For both the HA specimens included in the study and alumina specimens indented in an earlier study [J Mater Sci 38:1910. doi: 10.1007/BF00595764 , 1], E and υ decreased approximately linearly with increasing microcrack damage. The slopes of the E and υ versus N and e are also computed and compared to the available theoretical models.