Evaluation of mechanical properties of anatomically designed scaffolds to repair the femur bone using FEM

Abstract

Bone scaffold's structure and material shall meet the required properties depending upon the properties of a bone that varies as per the location, microstructure, porosity, mineral content, etc. for its effective repair of a bone injury. Therefore, the structure and material of a bone shall be chosen as per the anatomical locations of a bone. In the present study, the mechanical properties of bone specimens extracted from three different locations of a bone have been measured experimentally and further, used in scaffolds material properties. The scaffolds with three types of material properties representing three locations of a bone have been tested under static load using FEM. The elastic modulus, strain energy, Von-Mises tress, and other parameters of each scaffold has been evaluated and compared with the properties obtained from bone specimens. It has been found that the elastic modulus of the scaffold from the distal location shows a higher value i.e., 320.81 MPa, and lowest for proximal i.e., 1111.71 MPa. The strain energy of scaffolds was found to be higher for distal location i.e., 19.21 MJ and 16.17 MJ for proximal location. There found a variation in the results of bone and scaffolds that is due to the porosity, plasticity, microstructure, etc. of bone specimens. The results of the present study shall be useful in selecting the material and optimizing the structure of scaffolds to match the properties of bone specimens.