Finite element model of a rabbit skull

Abstract

The dataset contains a finite element model of a rabbit skull, which contains hard (separate bones and teeth) and soft tissues (sutures and periodontal ligament). Files are provided to simulate a maximum incisor bite when considering a range of material properties for each bone in the skull. The files include: 1) a high resolution (~19million elements) mesh of the skull compatible with ANSYS; 2) input files for muscle loading, constraints and material properties; 3) a input file to run a range of simulations (compatible with ANSYS) which varies the material properties for each bone to use either i) bone-specific isotropic elastic modulus when measured in a particular orthotropic direction, ii) average isotropic elastic modulus when measured in a particular orthotropic direction, iii) bone specific orthotropic material properties with varying magnitudes of shear modulus. The material properties are taken from Wang et al (2024) (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298621). The files provided enables the user to output an image of the strain in the skull, along with averaged strain along a prescribed path through the skull (4 paths are included as a demonstration). Input files can be altered to alternative bone material properties and muscle forces