A B-spline based heterogeneous modeling and analysis of proximal femur with graded element

Abstract 

Bone is a complex biological tissue and natural heterogeneous object. The main objective of this study is to simulate quasi-static loading of bio-objects like human femur with B-spline based modeling and its 3D finite element analysis with graded element. B-spline surface representation method is extended to represent material composition to develop heterogeneous solid model of proximal femur. Lagrangian graded element is used to assign inhomogeneous isotropic elastic properties in finite element model to improve the performance. Convergence study is carried out with finite element model in single leg stance load condition. To test the feasibility of the model, sensitivity of simulation is investigated. To validate the model, numerical results are compared with those of an experimental work for the same specimen in simple stance load condition obtained from one of the reference paper. Good agreement is achieved for vertical displacement and strains in most of the locations.

Keywords: Heterogeneous model, B-spline, Graded element, Human bone