THE INFLUENCE OF MUSCLE LOADINGS ON THE DENSITY DISTRIBUTION OF THE PROXIMAL FEMUR

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents an efficient method for simulating the bone remodeling procedure. This method is based on the trajectorial architecture theory of optimization and employs a truss-like model for bone. The truss was subjected to external loads including 5 point loads simulating the hip joint contact forces and 3 muscular forces at the attachment sites of the muscles to the bone. The strain in the links was calculated and the links with high strains were identified. The initial truss is modified by introducing new links wherever the strain exceeds a prescribed value; each link undergoing a high strain is replaced by several new links by adding new nodes around it using the Delaunay method. Introduction of these new links to the truss, which is conducted according to a weighted arithmetic mean formula, strengthens the structure and reduces the strain within the respective zone. This procedure was repeated for several steps. Convergence was achieved when there were no critical links remaining. This method was used to study the 2D shape of proximal femur in the frontal plane and provided results that are consistent with CT data. The proposed method exhibited capability similar to more complicated conventional nonlinear algorithms, however, with a much higher convergence rate and lower computation costs. INTRODUCTION Research regarding the relationship between mechanical environment and bone structure can be traced back to Wolff Remodeling theories try to define a basic mathematical relation between the loads on the bone and its structure. A wide range of approaches have been proposed in the literature to describe these relations and predict the optimal shape of the bones It is expected that the application of different boundary conditions to the Finite Element (FE) model will have an effec

    Similar works