Open Access

ARTICLE

Numerical Simulation of Bone Remodeling Coupling the Damage Repair Process in Human Proximal Femur

Chuanyong Qu^*, Hui Yuan

Department of Mechanics, School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350, China

* Corresponding Author: Chuanyong Qu. Email:

(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Computer Methods in Bio-mechanics and Biomedical Engineering)

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2020, 125(2), 829-847. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmes.2020.012407

Received 29 June 2020; Accepted 16 September 2020; Issue published 12 October 2020

Abstract

Microdamage is produced in bone tissue under the long-term effects of physiological loading, as well as age, disease and other factors. Bone remodeling can repair microdamage, otherwise this damage will undermine bone quality and even lead to fractures. In this paper, the damage variable was introduced into the remodeling algorithm. The new remodeling algorithm contains a quadratic term that can simulate reduction in bone density after large numbers of loading cycles. The model was applied in conjunction with the 3D finite element method (FEM) to the remodeling of the proximal femur. The results showed that the initial accumulation of fatigue damage led to an increase in density but when the damage reached a certain level, the bone density decreased rapidly until the femur failed. With the accumulation of damage, bone remodeling was coupled with fatigue damage to maintain the function of bone. When the accumulation of damage reached a certain level, bone remodeling failed to repair the accumulated fatigue damage in time, and continued cyclic loading significantly weakened the loadbearing capacity of the bone. The new mathematical model not only predicts fatigue life, but also helps to further understand the compromise between damage repair and damage accumulation, which is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of clinical bone diseases.

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