Shape adaptation of long bone structures using a contour based approach

Abstract

In this work, an approach for mechanically driven shape adaptation of long bone structures is presented which utilizes contour descriptions to track morphological changes at different bone cross sections. A script-based procedure is used to iteratively generate a solid geometry and finite element (FE) model from these contours, perform a stress analysis, and then update the contour shapes using the results of the stress analysis using a prescribed remodeling rule. Because a remeshing operation is performed at each timestep the method is able to effectively simulate large changes in geometry. Several examples of shape adaptation of idealized and geometrically accurate long-bone structures are presented using a variety of remodeling signals and parameters.

Keywords:

• Finite element modeling
• Functional adaptation
• Bone remodeling
• Long-bone structures

Acknowledgements

Support from the Louisiana Space Consortium, the Louisiana Education Quality Scholarship Fund, the Whitaker Foundation, and the Alden J. “Doc” Laborde Chair is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank Dr David Fyhrie for supplying the μCT scan of the rat tibia used in this work.

Sources of funding for portions of this work were provided by the Louisiana Space Consortium, the Louisiana Education Quality Scholarship Fund, the Whitaker Foundation, and the Alden J. “Doc” Laborde Endowed Chair in Biomedical Engineering.

Notes

† Part of this work were presented at the 2001 ASME Winter Bioengineering Conference and the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society.