Bone Material and Fracture Resistance: The Nitty Gritty
Paul Hansma on his website notes that the Abalone Sea Shell, 97% crystalline calcium carbonate, is 3000 times more fracture resistant than pure calcium carbonate rock.
This is similar to bone where we have a complex construct interwoven in manner similar to reinforced concrete providing, torsional, tensile and compressional strength against force. To see what provides this strength we have to look at the actual composition of bone material and how it holds together. Presumably this will provide us some understanding in appropriate warm up and training of our horses.
Last post I noted the collagen fibrils and mineralized plates as components of bone with mechanical roles of holding it together, and also certain organic proteins interacting in complex chemical manner to form a "bone glue" which differentiates all this from pure calcium carbonate in rock by the way it bonds and the manner in which it operates on a molecular level.
Picture trying to fracture a piece of bone:
"It takes enormous energy to fracture an abalone shell because the protein-based glue between the mineral plates stretches and holds even if the spacing between the places increases from 1 nm to beyond 100 nm. "
And Hansma's site details this process of impact as there is a difference between the bonds "breaking" and irreversibly breaking, and please avoid dismissing the next sentence as jargon because it is crucial to understanding:
When exposed to force "the system dissipates large amounts of energy with entropic and enthalpic forces while stretching out the hidden length of polymers in the "glue" that is exposed when sacrificial bonds break".
How do the polymers stretch out and what is the "hidden length"? Consider:
Hopefully this conveys a bit the source of the strength of bone and manner of operation. I'm about to tie it all together.
Training:
July 8, Sun: Off
July 9, Mon: 6 x 3f riderless much of it a little too fast for state of training.
July 10, Tues: Off. Tack work was planned but cancelled as our little fellow (again) shears off a shoe in a fence.
This is similar to bone where we have a complex construct interwoven in manner similar to reinforced concrete providing, torsional, tensile and compressional strength against force. To see what provides this strength we have to look at the actual composition of bone material and how it holds together. Presumably this will provide us some understanding in appropriate warm up and training of our horses.
Last post I noted the collagen fibrils and mineralized plates as components of bone with mechanical roles of holding it together, and also certain organic proteins interacting in complex chemical manner to form a "bone glue" which differentiates all this from pure calcium carbonate in rock by the way it bonds and the manner in which it operates on a molecular level.
Picture trying to fracture a piece of bone:
"It takes enormous energy to fracture an abalone shell because the protein-based glue between the mineral plates stretches and holds even if the spacing between the places increases from 1 nm to beyond 100 nm. "
And Hansma's site details this process of impact as there is a difference between the bonds "breaking" and irreversibly breaking, and please avoid dismissing the next sentence as jargon because it is crucial to understanding:
When exposed to force "the system dissipates large amounts of energy with entropic and enthalpic forces while stretching out the hidden length of polymers in the "glue" that is exposed when sacrificial bonds break".
How do the polymers stretch out and what is the "hidden length"? Consider:
Hopefully this conveys a bit the source of the strength of bone and manner of operation. I'm about to tie it all together.Training:
July 8, Sun: Off
July 9, Mon: 6 x 3f riderless much of it a little too fast for state of training.
July 10, Tues: Off. Tack work was planned but cancelled as our little fellow (again) shears off a shoe in a fence.
posted by rather rapid at
12:54 PM
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