Investigation and analysis of a new composite material for bone fracture fixation plate

Abstract

In the field of surgery, isolated fractures of the ulna bone shaft are common forearm injuries generally repaired using rigid metallic bone plates, which may result newlinein quotstress shieldingquot leading to refracture of the bone and decreases the mass of the newlinebone. In order to minimize the aforementioned drawbacks, fiber-reinforced composite newlinematerials with less stiffness have been proposed for bone plate applications. The newlinepurpose of the current investigation is to develop new glass/jute/polyester hybrid newlinecomposite material for bone plates whose structure is designed in order to provide less rigidity compared to conventional metallic plates. In an effort to mimic the structure of composite with the bone, a soft natural fiber at a core like cancellous bone and strong newlinesynthetic fiber like cortical bone taken at the external faces of the composite. A number newlineof design guidelines have been followed in this study to take benefit of the strength of composite structures and to obtain the best advantage of the properties of both the fiber. The Classical Lamination Theory (CLT) and rule of mixture is used to evaluate elastic properties of the composite prior to manufacturing. The measured elastic properties are used to predict the feasibility of designed composite material models for newlinefurther processing and characterization. Three ifferent laminates are considered in this study are manufactured by hand layup method in the laboratory. The effect of varying stacking sequence and orientation on different mechanical properties of composite are investigated by performing experimental tests. Specifically, the material is tested under tension, compression, flexural and fatigue test to make the simulation more realistic.