THEORETICAL-ANALYSIS OF THE PIEZOELECTRIC EFFECT IN BONE

A recent paper by Gundjian and Chen proposed that the piezoelectric behavior of bone could be mathematically formulated using a standard equivalent single crystal structure derived from knowledge of the piezoelectric nature of collagen fibers and their spatial arrangement in skeletal tissue. An attempt to clarify and pursue that concept is given. Certain errors in the previous paper are corrected, producing new results which, if correct, have profound implications with regard to the form of bone''s piezoelectric tensor. These results are compared with available experimental data and with an alternative theory by Korostoff. The 2 theories produce different yet similar results; inconsistencies in the experimental data currently preclude an evaluation of relative merits of the 2 theories.