Modelling and computation of acrylic bone cement injection and curing within the framework of vertebroplasty

This contribution deals with the simulation based investigation of processes related to the surgical treatment of vertebroplasty. In this regard, a simulation framework has been developed, which includes the generation of microstructural computer models of cancellous bone structures, the simulation of bone cement injection by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods and finite element (FE) simulations of bone cement curing processes. The modelling and computation strategy is illustrated and different material modelling approaches for the representation of acrylic bone cements as a non-linear fluid and a non-linear viscoelastic solid with curing dependent properties are outlined. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Modelling and simulation of injecting acrylic bone cement into osteoporotic vertebral bones within percutaneous vertebroplasty

Percutaneous vertebroplasty is a common clinical procedure to treat vertebral compression fractures and osteoporotic vertebral bodies. However, this operation technique is accompanied by different complications due to lack of knowledge about the complicated behaviour of bone cement within the human body. To contribute to a better understanding of the processes that take place inside the body during a vertebroplasty, a detailed model of the thermomechanical behaviour of acrylic bone cement has been developed. All important effects are covered, that influence the behaviour of acrylic bone cement during the injection in a human vertebral body. Implemented in the opensource CFD-code OpenFOAM^®, first results show that this comprehensive simulation of the minimal invasive injection is capable to accurately predict the cement distribution and temperature field of acrylic bone cement inside the vertebral body. (© 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Computational simulation of piezo-electrically stimulated bone remodeling surrounding teeth implant

Since the natural ligament responsible for the fixation of teeth in jawbone is destroyed when artificial replacements are implanted, the mechanical stimulation of the bone is reversed. Idea of this research project is the development of active implants which provide additional electrical stimulation for bone adaption. A new electromechanically driven bone remodeling theory will be developed and the osseointegration of bone implants has been simulated by means of bio-active interface theory. The thin bone-implant interface is described by the Drucker-Prager plasticity model. Besides the consistent combination of electromechanical bone remodeling simulation, 3D-finite element model of lower mandible has been reconstructed. As the micromotions at the implant-abutment level are reported to be a major determinant of longterm implant success, the osseointegration process is limited by micromotion threshold. The applicability is indicated on a dental implant in order to optimize new developed techniques for activating implants with piezo-electric coatings. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Porous-media simulation of bone-cement spreading during vertebroplasty

The reinforcement of porous vertebral cancellous bone by the injection of bone cement is a practical procedure for the stabilisation of osteoporotic compression fractures and other weakening lesions. This contribution concerns the reproduction and prediction of the resulting bone-cement distribution during the injection procedure by means of numerical simulation. A detailed micromechanical (locally single-phasic) model exhibits the drawback that all geometrical and physical transition conditions of the individual parts of the complex aggregate have to be known. Therefore, we rather proceed from a macroscopic (and multi-constituent) continuum-mechanical model based on the Theory of Porous Media. In this regard, the homogenisation of the underlying micro-structure results in a model of three constituents: these are the solid bone skeleton, which is saturated by the liquid bone marrow that may be displaced by the injected liquid bone cement. The influence of the micro-architecture of the pore space on the spreading of the bone cement is considered by a spatial diversification of the anisotropic permeability tensors, obtained through image processing techniques applied to medical imaging data (µCT). The numerical investigation of the strongly coupled problem enables the study of vertebroplasty and allows for the comparison between the simulation results and the experimentally determined bone-cement distribution that were imaged during injections. (© 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Numerical investigations on autogenous shrinkage of cement paste and mortar

Autogenous shrinkage of cement paste and concrete is defined as the macroscopic length change occurring with no moisture transferred to the exterior surrounding environment. It is a result of chemical shrinkage affiliated with the hydration of cement particles and the ongoing process of self-desiccation. The process of self-desiccation can be modeled starting from the formation of the capillary pore space during hydration in the cement paste. In this proposal a working model will be introduced explaining the difficulties to obtain the autogenous shrinkage strains directly from a simulated or measured microstructure of cement paste. In a second step the autogenous shrinkage of a hardening cement mortar was described on a mesoscopic level. It based on measurements on cement paste. The mortar simply consists of cement paste and a defined fraction of spherical aggregates with a known modulus of elasticity. Furthermore the influence of the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) is studied in numerical simulations. The results of these finite-element-calculations are introduced and compared with testing results of the autogenous shrinkage of hardening mortar samples. (© 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Multiphasic Modelling of the Vertebral Bone for Cement-Injection Studies

The stability of the human spine is highly dependent on the cancellous bone structure of the vertebra. In the case of osteoporosis and accompanied weaking of the vertebral structure, compression fractures and other lesions of the affected patient may occur. The reinforcement of the porous cancellous bone by the injection of bone-cement is a common procedure in order to overcome this issues. The modelling and computational simulation of vertebroplasty, i.e., bone-cement-injection into the vertebra, is of major interest to obtain valid and reliable predicitions for this surgery. A detailed micromechanical (and locally single-phasic) model exhibits the drawback that all geometrical and physical transition conditions of the individual parts and their complex microstructure have to be known. Therefore, this study considers a macro-scopic (and multi-constituent) continuum-mechanical model based on the Theory of Porous Media, where the homogenisation of the underlying micro-structure results in a model of three constituents. In particular, these are the solid bone skeleton, which is saturated by bone marrow, where the latter may be displaced by the injected liquid bone cement. The micro-architecture is regarded by heterogeneous and anisotropic permeability tensors and the preferred directions of the trabecular bone structure. The presented strongly coupled macroscopic model offers the opportunity to not only simulate the flow of the pore fluids but also predicts the arising stresses and strains of the solid bone skeleton due to the numerical investigation of the injection process. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Modeling of skin anisotropy directions for identifying stress free reference configuration of the female breast

Biomechanical simulations of the female breast are important for surgical applications such as implants augmentation, tumorectomy and reconstruction after the tumor removal. One of the main challenges for such breast simulations is to define its reference configuration which can be considered as a stress free state. Indeed, MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans of the breast can be obtained only under gravitational load which introduces a considerable stress and strains level for any position of the patient. Moreover, realistic material properties especially anisotropy of skin should be taken into account. This anisotropy can play an important role but has not so far been considered in biomechanical simulations of the breast. In the current contribution, we implement an iterative method to define the reference configuration of the breast model according to MRI data of certain individuals in the prone position by taking into account the anisotropy directions of skin. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Simulating the Microstructure of cement-based Construction Materials

For a better understanding of material phenomena, it is reasonable to take a deeper look into the microstructure of the material under consideration. In this contribution we focus on hardened cement paste with the goal to determine the effective material properties through simulations of the microstructure and numerical homogenization. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Simulation of the sinus floor elevation

In order to anchor implants in the severely atrophic maxilla, the method of sinus floor elevation has been introduced about ten years ago. For this purpose the bony support is extended into the sinus floor by filling it up with bone graft. It was not clear yet which degree of maturation the augmented bone must reach to distinctly reduce stress peaks in the bony structures. The results of this FE‐study show that it seems to be essential for the bone graft to attain at least the stiffness of cancellous bone. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A novel coupled system of non-local integro-differential equations modelling Young’s modulus evolution,nutrients’ supply and consumption during bone fracture healing

During fracture healing, a series of complex coupled biological and mechanical phenomena occurs. They include: (i) growth and remodelling of bone, whose Young’s modulus varies in space and time; (ii) nutrients’ diffusion and consumption by living cells. In this paper, we newly propose to model these evolution phenomena. The considered features include: (i) a new constitutive equation for growth simulation involving the number of sensor cells; (ii) an improved equation for nutrient concentration accounting for the switch between Michaelis–Menten kinetics and linear consumption regime; (iii) a new constitutive equation for Young’s modulus evolution accounting for its dependence on nutrient concentration and variable number of active cells. The effectiveness of the model and its predictive capability are qualitatively verified by numerical simulations (using COMSOL) describing the healing of bone in the presence of damaged tissue between fractured parts.     

基于非线性主成分神经网络水泥强度预测研究

研究非线性主成分分析法与神经网络算法的融合模型,并将非线性主成分神经网络融合模型应用于水泥强度的预测研究,得到的结果表明预测误差很小,可见研究结果可用于指导水泥生产实践.     

Finite Element Modelling of Bioactive Contact in Bone-Implant Interface

Finite element simulation for the prediction of bone remodelling caused by implants is a powerful method to improve or to rate implant designs even before they will be evaluated in clinical studies. But the bone–implant interaction is often modelled as ideal bonding in the interface. This approach is not suitable to describe the interrelation of both parts in a physiological manner. To correct these insufficiencies a 3D bioactive contact element has been developed. This contact element describes on the one hand the pure mechanical interaction and on the other hand the mechanical stimulated bone ingrowth in porous surfaces. The benefits of the use of the bioactive contact element regarding the standard method will be presented in this contribution. A comparison of both methods based on clinic results regarding a hip prosthesis with mixed surface textures will be shown. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A multi-agent model describing self-renewal of differentiation effects on the blood cell population

In this work, a new multi-agent model is used to describe blood cell population dynamics. More particularly, we focus our simulations here on differentiation and self-renewal process based on cell communication. We consider the different cases where progenitor cells are able to self-renew or not in the bone marrow. As a consequence of this study, we give some possible explanations of the mechanism for recovery of the system under important blood loss or blood diseases such as anemia.     

Virtual lab in Modelica of a cement clinker cooler for operator training

Plant operator training plays a fundamental role in improving the energy efficiency of the cement manufacturing process and in reducing the CO₂ emission. A virtual lab of a clinker grate cooler, intended for the training of cement plant operators, has been developed. The grate cooler model has been derived from first principles, and has been validated by consulting cement industry experts, and comparing the simulated results with published data and available information from the cement industry. The model has been described in the Modelica language. The Interactive Modelica library has been used to develop the interactive user-to-model interface, and the communication between this interface and the model. The virtual lab, which is completely described in Modelica, has been simulated using the Dymola 6.1 modelling environment. The Interactive Modelica library can be freely downloaded from the website http://www.euclides.dia.uned.es/     

Numerical Simulation of the Application of NiTi Alloys in Medical Technologies

Shape memory alloys are nowadays already established as a material which is able to solve exceptional tasks in practical applications. Particularly, its utilization in the field of medical technologies increases steadily. For example micro tools (staple, catheters) and implants (coronary stents) are made out of Nickel-Titanium well known as a basic shape memory alloy. Apart from the advantages like the avoidance of auxiliary components and joints in the system and to utilize the high volume specific work of shape memory alloys, NiTi alloys exhibit a good biocompatibility. This property is necessary with regard to either permanent or temporary implants. To optimize the use of NiTi alloys in the scope of medical technologies, the support of the development of applicable tools by numerical simulations is highly recommended. However the complex material behaviour containing a profoundly thermomechanical coupling poses indeed a big challenge to the material modeling and its implementation into a finite element code. Particularly, the material model proposed by Helm [1] proves to be a firm model containing the most common properties of shape memory alloys, as the pseudoelasticity, the shape memory effect and the two-way effect. In the present contribution the FE modelling of a medical staple used in foot surgery is presented by considering the model of Helm which was investigated by the authors to improve its performance in the finite element method [2]. The foot staple, produced by a group of members of the SFB 459 which is funded by the DFG, avails the shape memory effect to excite the desired clamping effect [3]. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Multi-dimensional,mechanical stimulation of cartilage implants

In biomedical engineering, it is a common practice to replace injured cartilage by implants, which are seeded with human cartilage cells. Before implanting, the implants are cultivated and usually stimulated electrically or mechanically in a bioreactor to initiate cell multiplication and oriented cell growth. A new experimental set-up is developed leading to the possibility of stimulating such implants in a multi-dimensional, physiologically consistent way. In cooperation with the University Medical Centre Aachen, a human knee simulator is developed. Cell-seeded implants are placed in a recreated human environment and stimulated with several load cycles of reproduced walking. After the cultivation period, the implanted material is removed and biologically and mechanically evaluated. The quality of the implanted material as well as the influence of the body-conformable load on the material is studied. To understand the correlation between tissue remodelling and mechanical load history, the load and movement scenario is also numerically investigated. For this reason, the experiment is transferred to a geometrically realistic FE model of a human knee. As a first approach, an elastic material model is used. The aim is to have a predictive FE model with an optimal trade-off between accuracy and efficiency using an appropriate material formulation. The results will be compared to experimental data. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A convergence result in the study of bone remodeling contact problems

We consider the approximation of a bone remodeling model with the Signorini contact conditions by a contact problem with normal compliant obstacle, when the obstacle's deformability coefficient converges to zero (that is, the obstacle's stiffness tends to infinity). The variational problem is a coupled system composed of a nonlinear variational equation (in the case of normal compliance contact conditions) or a variational inequality (for the case of Signorini's contact conditions), for the mechanical displacement field, and a first-order ordinary differential equation for the bone remodeling function. A theoretical result, which states the convergence of the contact problem with normal compliance contact law to the Signorini problem, is then proved. Finally, some numerical simulations, involving examples in one and two dimensions, are reported to show this convergence behaviour.     

An examination of tissue engineered scaffolds in a bioreactor

Replacement tissues, designed to fill in articular cartilage defects, should exhibit the same properties as the native material. The aim of this study is to foster the understanding of, firstly, the mechanical behavior of the material itself and, secondly, the influence of cultivation parameters on cell seeded implants as well as on cell migration into acellular implants. In this study, acellular cartilage replacement material is theoretically, numerically and experimentally investigated regarding its viscoelastic properties, where a phenomenological model for practical applications is developed. Furthermore, remodeling and cell migration are investigated. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Repairing force for deformed casing shaping with spinning casing swage and damage behaviour of cement sheath

In oil and gas fields, the repairing force (bit weight) is generally determined by experience when the deformed casing is repaired using the spinning casing swage. However, unreasonable repairing force easily damages the cement sheath around the deformed casing and causes pipe sticking, which results in failure of the wellbore integrity. Hence, based on the Hertz contact theory, the present study established a mechanical model to calculate the repairing force required to repair the deformed casing without a cement sheath by spinning casing swage, and the reshaping force was determined by combining the structural features of the spinning casing swage with the method of mechanics and kinetics analysis regarding axial loading and circumferential deformation of the deformed casing. Finally, a mechanical model was presented that could calculate the repairing force of the deformation casing with cement sheath using the inversion method. Repairing experiments involving three types of deformed casings (casing without cement sheath, casing with undamaged cement sheath and casing with damaged cement sheath) were performed, from which the accuracy and reliability of the mechanical model was validated. The damage behaviour of the cement sheath after casing repair was investigated based on the experimental results and the damage mechanism was analysed based on Saint-Venant's deformation compatibility principle. Analysis results showed that three types of damage, including micro-annulus, transverse fracture and longitudinal fracture, were caused by high contact pressure between the steel ball on the spinning casing swage and the internal wall of the deformed casing and pressure fluctuation during repairing. The research results provide important guidance and decision making for practical repairing measures.     

An algorithmic strategy for the simulation of bone healing directly on computed tomography data

An algorithmic strategy for the modelling and simulation of bone healing is presented. The algorithm works directly on the computed tomography data and simulates, after an appropriate volume meshing, a mechainically driven healing concept which is based on competitive and dynamical mechanical parameters. The finite element simulations are done with realistic boundary conditions from patient-specific OpenSim simulations. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)