Ultrasonic attenuation in trabecular bone: Theoretical approach and experimental measurement

Type : Article de conférence
Auteur(s) :  Abderrazek Bennamane, Tarek Boutkedjirt
Année :  2016
Domaine : Sciences des matériaux
Conférence: 7th African Conference on Non Destructive Testing (ACNDT) & the 5th International Conference on NDT and Materials Industry and Alloys (IC-WNDT-MI)
Lieu de la conférence:  Oran, Algeria
Résumé en PDF :  (résumé en pdf)
Fulltext en PDF :  (.pdf)
Mots clés :  Cancellous bone, Ultrasound, Attenuation, Scattering, Propagation modeling

Résumé : 

The aim of this paper is to determine how different parameters such as porosity, scatter size and frequency affect the ultrasonic attenuation process during the acoustic wave propagation through the trabecular bone. In this study, a theoretical model combining absorption and scattering is proposed to predict attenuation in trabecular bones. The total theoretical attenuation coefficient is computed as the sum of the contributions of scattering and absorption. The obtained results have been compared with experimental data achieved on bovine cancellous bone samples filled by water. The porosity of the used samples varies between 40 % and 75 %. A transmission technique is used. This method only requires the measurement of the specimens thickness and recording of two pulses: one without and one with the specimen inserted between the transmitting and receiving transducers. The theoretical model used in this paper appears to give appropriate results compared with experimental measurements. The obtained results show that viscous losses are not sufficient to describe the attenuation intrabecular bone. This study indicates that scattering is the primary mechanism responsible for attenuation in trabecular bone and confirms the strong dependence of the attenuation of the size of the scatterer, the bone porosity and of the ultrasound frequency.