Bone remodeling analysis for a swine skull at continuous scale based on the smoothed finite element method

Abstract

In order to study bone response during chewing, bone remodeling analysis at a continuous scale is performed to a swine skull obtained using μCT. The smoothed finite element method (S-FEM) is utilized to replace the finite element method (FEM) in bone remodeling as it is solving the "overly-stiff" problem in FEM by introducing strain smoothing technology to soften the stiffness matrix. Three S-FEM models with different levels of softening effects are developed, including node-based, edge-based, and face-based, which leads to various bone remodeling results for a better understanding of the remodeling process. During the remodeling process, the strain energy density is used as the mechanical stimulus, and the surface elements or smoothing domains are regarded as cortical bone. Under the action of mechanical stimuli, cortical bone and cancellous bone have been remodeled. In remodeling progress, ES-FEM shows close results as compared with the experimental μCT in nodal bone density distribution, FEM and FS-FEM are close to the μCT experimental model in average nodal density. In summary, the combined use of several methods provides more angles for the description of bone remodeling.

Keywords: Biomechanics; Bone remodeling; Density change; Smoothed finite element method; Strain energy density; Swine skull.