Development and Validation of a Numerical Model for the Mechanical Behavior of Knee Prosthesis Analyzed by the Finite Elements Method

Abstract

The human knee is a complex joint (the largest joint of the human body). During the different daily activities, this joint is exposed to significant loads and movements, may in some cases exceed the limit of the mechanical capacities of its components, which shows that the pathologies are quite numerous at the level of the human knee and the treatment sometimes requires surgery to either repair or implant (implant total knee prosthesis). As we know very well, the success of a total knee implant is highly dependent on the initial stability of the femoral or tibial implant and the integration of femur and tibia bone tissue with these implants in the long term. Due to the optimal distribution of mechanical stresses in the surrounding bone. It is for this reason that the search for reasonable solutions to compensate the damaged knee prosthesis and reduce the stresses in the cortical bone and spongy has become a very important research axis. In this regard, we have proposed three models of prosthesis knee joint from available literature and study the distribution of Von-Mises stresses and strains in the differents composents of knee prosthesis, know the total displacement between the model intact and model artificial of knee, 3D modeling software Solidworks 2016 is used for 3D modeling of knee prosthesis and finite element analysis software ANSYS 16.2 is used for numerical estimation of von-Mises stresses and strains. We find in this study that the maximum stresses and strains of Von Mises at the level of the tibia and tibial bone decrease, that is to say that the cement and the elastomer play a very important role in the absorption of the stresses and their minimization. On the other hand, the four knee prostheses (Model I (Ti6Al4V), Model II (CoCrMo), Model III (316L SS), Model IV (ZrO2)) implanted by elastomer contribute significantly to the reduction of stresses in the patella bone compared to the Intact Model. In general, both models of the knee prosthesis and reinforced by a stress reduction system (cement, elastomer) gave a lower stress level in the tibia and tibial bone of a normal person compared to a healthy model. The results obtained provide a theoretical basis for choosing an appropriate surgical model.