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The Effect of Material Heterogeneity, Element Type, and Down-Sampling on Trabecular Stiffness in Micro Finite Element Models

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Abstract

Preclinical and clinical bone strength predictions can be elucidated by understanding bone mechanics at a variety of hierarchical levels. As such, down-sampled micro-CT images are often used to make comparisons across image resolutions or used to reduce computational resources in micro finite element models (µFEMs). Therefore, the objectives of this study were to compare trabecular apparent modulus among (i) hexahedral and tetrahedral µFEMs, (ii) µFEMs generated from 32, 64, and 64 µm down-sampled from 32 µm µCT scans, and (iii) µFEMs with homogeneous and heterogeneous tissue moduli. Trabecular µFEMs were generated from scans at the three spatial resolutions taken from the glenoid vault of 14 cadaveric specimens. Simulated unconstrained compression was performed and used to calculate and compare the apparent modulus of each µFEM. It was found that models derived from high-resolution images that account for material heterogeneity are nearly equivalent whether hexahedral or tetrahedral elements are used. However, translation of stiffness from down-sampled scans are not equivalent to scans performed at the down-sampled resolution, or that account for trabecular material heterogeneity. Material heterogeneity is most representative of in vivo trabecular bone and to accurately model trabecular mechanical properties, material heterogeneity should be considered in future µFEM development.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Andrew Nelson for his assistance with microCT scanning, Mohammadreza Faieghi for the voxelization code, and Shruthi Poolacherla for her assistance with data collection. Nikolas K. Knowles is supported in part by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship and by a Transdisciplinary Bone & Joint Training Award from the Collaborative Training Program in Musculoskeletal Health Research at The University of Western Ontario.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Nikolas K. Knowles & Kenneth Ip

  2. Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Louis M. Ferreira

  3. Surgical Mechatronics Laboratory, Roth|McFarlane Hand and Upper Limb Centre, St. Josephs Health Care, 268 Grosvenor St., London, ON, Canada

    Nikolas K. Knowles, Kenneth Ip & Louis M. Ferreira

  4. Collaborative Training Program in MSK Health Research, and Bone and Joint Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Nikolas K. Knowles & Louis M. Ferreira

Authors
  1. Nikolas K. Knowles
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  2. Kenneth Ip
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Correspondence to Louis M. Ferreira.

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Associate Editor Ka-Wai Kwok oversaw the review of this article.

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Knowles, N.K., Ip, K. & Ferreira, L.M. The Effect of Material Heterogeneity, Element Type, and Down-Sampling on Trabecular Stiffness in Micro Finite Element Models. Ann Biomed Eng 47, 615–623 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-018-02152-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-018-02152-6

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