Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 1999
The question is, what happens when the bone loses its ability for load-driven adaptation, when damage is no longer repaired as it seems to be the case for bone loss associated with age, medication or disease? In this study, we tempt to show how damage can influence the remodeling process. A thermodynamic theoretical framework is therefore provided as a basis for a consistent formulation of bone remodeling involving a chemical reaction and mass transfer between two constituents in presence of microcracks.