Investigation of electrostrictive effect in bovine bone

In order to determine the electrostrictive effect in bone, the deformation of bone cantilever under a uniform electric field applied via a pair of non-contact electrodes was measured using image correlation technique. The bending direction of the bone cantilever is independent on the electric field direction which is a typical feature of electrostrictive effect of dielectric. The free end deflections of the bone cantilevers are from 1.33 to 4.99 μm which corresponding to the linear strain 2.13 με to 7.99 με respectively. The amplitude of the bending deflection caused by electrostriction may represent the amount of electric charges in the bulk of bone.