Application of the Cartesian Grid Finite Element Method to image-based bone remodelling process

J Gutiérrez-Gil , E. Nadal (1) , O. M. León , Octavio Andrés González Estrada (2) , J. Albelda (3) , J. J. Ródenas (3)

1 CITV - Centro de Investigación en Tecnología de Vehículos
2 GIEMA - Grupo de Investigación en Energía y Medioambiente [Bucaramanga]]
3 UPV - Universitat Politècnica de València = Universitad Politecnica de Valencia = Polytechnic University of Valencia

The bone remodelling is the process by which the bone is reabsorbed, or is regenerated, as a function of the received mechanical stimuli and of different biological factors. This process is carried out by the osteoclasts, which are the cells in charge of the destruction or reabsorption of the old tissue, and by the osteoblasts that synthesize the new tissue. For the study of the phenomenon of bone remodelling, it is necessary to know the mechanical response of the bone tissue against external stresses. Given the complexity of the boundary conditions and characteristics of biological materials, numerical methods are often used to obtain stress and strain fields in this type of problem. This process usually involves the time-consuming bone segmentation procedure from the medical images and the elaboration of finite element mesh that represent the geometry of the bone. In this work the study of a model of remodelling in three dimensions performed by means of Cartesian Grid Finite Element Method (cgFEM) [1] is presented. The use of cgFEM allows to generate a finite element model directly from medical images, i.e. computerized axial tomography (CT), considerably simplifying the analysis process.

Domains: Structural mechanics [physics.class-ph]

J Gutiérrez-Gil, E. Nadal, O. M. León, Octavio Andrés González Estrada, J. Albelda, et al.. Application of the Cartesian Grid Finite Element Method to image-based bone remodelling process. 5th ECCOMAS Young Investigators Conference, Sep 2019, Krakow, Poland. ⟨hal-02501476⟩