3D Boundary element meshing for multiscale bone anisotropic analysis

ABSTRACT

Bone health conditions are treated with prosthesis and implant fixations. Despite being there to assist the patient, the difference between the elastic properties of these artificial medical solutions and the treated bone region may lead to a new fracture. One strategy to circumvent that problem, reducing the gap between the elastic properties, is to use Functionally Graded Materials in the manufacture of such medical devices. It is therefore of vital importance to understand the mechanical properties of bone within the region of interest, once this knowledge may ease and improve the development of artificial medical solutions. The bone tissue is a hierarchical material which has different elastic behaviour depending upon the scale of interest, the particular bone and the bone region. In this work, a multi-scale BEM mesh model of bone tissue ranging from the nanoscale to the mesoscale is sought. A new nanoscale design which considers the hydroxyapatite crystals inside, and outside the fibrils is developed. Furthermore, the fibrils are modelled with reported elliptical cross sections. Additionally, a procedure to develop the BEM meshes using multimedia software is proposed, based upon the similarities between them. Finally, several mesheswere created using triangular continuous elements.

KEYWORDS:

• 3D Surface meshing
• multi-scale bone
• boundary elements
• anisotropic elastic properties of bone
• nanoscale bone model
• trabecular bone model
• 3ds Max applied to BEM

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and the National Council for the Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for the financial support of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work wassupported by Coordination for the Improvement of Higher EducationPersonnel (CAPES) [33003017]; the National Council for theScientific and Technological Development (CNPq) [154283/2014-2]and [312493/2013-4].