Atypical viscous fracture of human femurs

Creep phenomenon at the scale of bone tissue (small specimens) is known to be present and demonstrated for low strains. Here creep is demonstrated on a pair of fresh-frozen human femurs at the organ level at high strains. Under a constant displacement applied on femur\'s head, surface strains at the upper neck location increase with time until fracture, that occurs within 7-13 seconds. The monotonic increase in strains provides evidence on damage accumulation in the interior (probably damage to the trabeculae) prior to final fracture, a fact that hints on probable damage of the trabecular bone that occurs prior to the catastrophic fracture of the cortical surface layer.