Application of an enhanced homogenization technique to the structural multiscale analysis of a femur bone

Abstract

Bone is a complex hierarchical material that can be characterized from the microscale to macroscale. This work demonstrates the application of an enhanced homogenization methodology to the multiscale structural analysis of a femoral bone. The use of this homogenization technique allows to remove subjectivity and reduce the computational cost associated with the iterative process of creating a heterogeneous mesh. Thus, it allows to create simpler homogenized meshes with its mechanical properties defined using information directly from the mesh source: the medical images. Therefore, this methodology is capable to accurately predict bone mechanical behavior in a fraction of the time required by classical approaches. The results show that using the homogenization technique, despite the differences between the used homogeneous and heterogeneous meshes, its mechanical behavior is similar. The proposed homogenization technique is useful for a multiscale modelling and it is computationally efficient.

Keywords:

• Fabric tensor
• homogenization technique
• multiscale
• bone
• MIL

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors truly acknowledge the funding provided by Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal), under Grants SFRH/BD/110047/2015, and by project funding MIT-EXPL/ISF/0084/2017 and UIDB/50022/2020.