Prediction of fracture healing under axial loading, shear loading and bending is possible using distortional and dilatational strains as determining mechanical stimuli

Abstract

Numerical models of secondary fracture healing are based on mechanoregulatory algorithms that use distortional strain alone or in combination with either dilatational strain or fluid velocity as determining stimuli for tissue differentiation and development. Comparison of these algorithms has previously suggested that healing processes under torsional rotational loading can only be properly simulated by considering fluid velocity and deviatoric strain as the regulatory stimuli. We hypothesize that sufficient calibration on uncertain input parameters will enhance our existing model, which uses distortional and dilatational strains as determining stimuli, to properly simulate fracture healing under various loading conditions including also torsional rotation. Therefore, we minimized the difference between numerically simulated and experimentally measured courses of interfragmentary movements of two axial compressive cases and two shear load cases (torsional and translational) by varying several input parameter values within their predefined bounds. The calibrated model was then qualitatively evaluated on the ability to predict physiological changes of spatial and temporal tissue distributions, based on respective in vivo data. Finally, we corroborated the model on five additional axial compressive and one asymmetrical bending load case. We conclude that our model, using distortional and dilatational strains as determining stimuli, is able to simulate fracture-healing processes not only under axial compression and torsional rotation but also under translational shear and asymmetrical bending loading conditions.