Influence of material properties and boundary conditions on patient-specific models

Abstract

Patient-specific finite element models (PSFEM) are becoming more and more used. Different methods for assigning their material properties were studied on PSFEMs of 9 tibias along with the minimal required length of the CT acquisition window. Material properties are generally attributed to the PSFEM using relationships linking the grayscale of CT scans to the elasticity moduli. Using cortical-specific and trabecular-specific relationships or a generic one, did not result in significant differences. However, the use of homogeneous elastic moduli in the cortical and trabecular regions led to considerable differences. The result highlight that the PSFEM must comprise at least 40% of the tibia to ensure consistent results in the proximal 20%.

Keywords:

• Finite element
• boundary conditions
• material properties
• patient-specific
• virtual surgery
• tibia

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Rémy Casanova for his help in processing the data with R, Julien Dupeyroux for his help in writing the manuscript and Marjorie Sweetko for English language revision.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no competing interest to declare.