Stress Analysis of the Human Skull due to the Insertion of Rapid Palatal Expander with Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

Abstract

The study aims at analyzing the stress state of the human skull with FEA, simulating the loads due to the insertion of rapid palatal expanders with two or four arms. A 3D CAD solid model of a human skull has been created starting from CT slices. Using FEA, forces that simulate the loads developed by the expander have been applied to the solid model of the skull to determine the stress state.