Some Investigations in Biomechanical Properties of Lower Extremities Bones

Abstract

In the present study, an experimental and finite element method is used for preliminary investigation of the biomechanical properties of lower extremity bones such as femur bone at low displacement rates and various inclinations in the coronal plane under a compressive stance loading configuration. The design and development of a femur bone testing setup for experimental analysis is presented. The tests are performed using different fixtures, which have been designed and developed to test the femur bone at different bone inclinations by simply changing fixture that holds the bone. In addition, advanced instrumentation such as data acquisition system assisted by Labview software has been designed and developed to predict the required biomechanical properties. While, selecting an appropriate animal model for research study, authors need to consider other factors such as similarity in analogy, genetic uniformity of organisms, biological properties, availability, ease and adaptability to experimental testing, ecological considerations, ethical and social implications, etc. were considered. Therefore, sheep femur specimens were selected in the present study. Thus, the research objective for the present research work is to study the effect of various bone inclinations in the coronal plane on biomechanical properties of the sheep femur bones under compressive loading. For this, experimental and numerical analysis is carried out at 0°, 8° and 15° at 0.2 mm/s displacement rate. The results obtained were compared for establishment and validation of the finite element method. The stress-strain response was measured to analyze the effect on biomechanical response of sheep femur bone. Further, established FE analysis methodology was used to analyze the effect of age and different inclinations (0°, 8° and 15°) in coronal plane on biomechanical properties of human femur bone. In addition, the mass density and elastic modulus relationships between animal and human femur bones have been established.