Simulations of a multiscale bone material model

Abstract

AbstractAn important application of simulating wave propagation in bone is the early detection of osteoporosis. During the course of this bone disease cortical bone is reduced and replaced by bone marrow, weakening the bone and increasing the likelihood of fractures [1]. Commonly, in modeling the problem is reduced to only mechanical effects. Recent research includes electrical and magnetic effects as well [2‐4]. In our previous contributions we introduced a two‐phase material model for bone, which considers mechanical, electrical and magnetic effects [5,6].In this contribution we use the introduced material model to perform multiscale simulations of bone. For this purpose we resort to the multiscale finite element method (FE2). To apply this method, we constructed a representative volume element (RVE) incorporating both material phases. We show numerical results of a cylinder model and a true to scale model of a human femur bone.