Material Characterization Issues in Fea of Long Bones

Abstract eng:
One of the main issues that arise during preparation of models for subject specific finite element analysis (FEA) of long bones is the accuracy of material characterization. This paper tends to identify the most common sources of material characterization errors, which are sometimes also interconnected with bone geometry reconstruction errors, in order to help in creation of more accurate finite element models of long bones. Reconstruction of patient's bone geometry is usually based on medical images obtained by means of computational tomography (CT). Material characterization is performed either by segmentation of the model to characteristic zones that are assigned typical averaged material properties, or by local material mapping, based on bone density values estimated from CT numbers. Some of the main factors that influence material characterization accuracy are the choice of material model, the approach to material properties averaging, x-ray tube parameters, scanner calibration, relations between CT image gray values and bone density and relations between bone density and elastic properties of the bone. The paper brings a comparison of numerical results obtained from a number of subject-specific analyses of human femur, in which the approaches to material modeling were varied. Material modeling was performed using either geometry segmentation with material properties averaging or local material mapping. The results of the analyses were examined and mutually compared, and the influence of material characterization errors to analyses results was identified and explained.

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