Emulating the Interfacial Kinematics of CNS White Matter With Finite Element Techniques

Author(s):  
Yi Pan ◽  
Assimina A. Pelegri ◽  
David I. Shreiber

Axonal injury represents a critical target for TBI and SCI prevention and treatment. Mechanical strain has been identified as the proximal cause of axonal injury, while secondary ischaemic and excitotoxic insults associated with the primary trauma potentially exacerbate the structural and functional damage. Many studies have been attempted to identify the states of stress and strain in white matter using animal and finite element models. These material models employed in finite element simulations of the central nervous system (CNS) of soft tissues heavily depend on phenomenological representations. The accuracy of these simulations depends not only on correct determination of the material properties but also on precise depiction of the tissues’ microstructure.

Author(s):  
Yi Pan ◽  
Vivak Patel ◽  
Assimina A. Pelegri ◽  
David I. Shreiber

Axonal injury represents a critical target for traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries prevention and treatment. Finite element head models are often used to predict brain injury caused by mechanical loading exerted on the head. Many studies have been attempted to understand injury mechanisms and to define mechanical parameters of axonal injury. Mechanical strain has been identified as the proximal cause of axonal injury. Since the microstructure of the brain white matter is locally oriented, the stress and strain fields are highly axon orientation dependent. The accuracy of the finite element simulations depends not only on correct determination of the material properties but also on precise depiction of the tissues’ microstructure (microscopic level). We applied a finite element method and a mircomechanics approach to simulate the kinematics of axon, which was developed according to experimental data, and found that the degree of coupling between the axons and surrounding cells within the tissue will affect the behavior of the tissue. In this study, the finite element model and the kinematic axonal model are applied to the Representative Volume Element (RVE) of central nervous system (CNS) white matter to investigate the tissue level mechanical behavior. The uniaxial tensile test on the white matter tissue will be presented as an example using the RVE.


Author(s):  
Adam Koscso ◽  
Guido Dhondt ◽  
E. P. Petrov

A new method has been developed for sensitivity calculations of modal characteristics of bladed disks made of anisotropic materials. The method allows the determination of the sensitivity of the natural frequencies and mode shapes of mistuned bladed disks with respect to anisotropy angles that define the crystal orientation of the monocrystalline blades using full-scale finite element models. An enhanced method is proposed to provide high accuracy for the sensitivity analysis of mode shapes. An approach has also been developed for transforming the modal sensitivities to coordinate systems used in industry for description of the blade anisotropy orientations. The capabilities of the developed methods are demonstrated on examples of a single blade and a mistuned realistic bladed disk finite element models. The modal sensitivity of mistuned bladed disks to anisotropic material orientation is thoroughly studied.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (12) ◽  
pp. 2859-2869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Kusins ◽  
Nikolas Knowles ◽  
Melanie Columbus ◽  
Sara Oliviero ◽  
Enrico Dall’Ara ◽  
...  

AbstractContinuum-level finite element models (FEMs) of the humerus offer the ability to evaluate joint replacement designs preclinically; however, experimental validation of these models is critical to ensure accuracy. The objective of the current study was to quantify experimental full-field strain magnitudes within osteoarthritic (OA) humeral heads by combining mechanical loading with volumetric microCT imaging and digital volume correlation (DVC). The experimental data was used to evaluate the accuracy of corresponding FEMs. Six OA humeral head osteotomies were harvested from patients being treated with total shoulder arthroplasty and mechanical testing was performed within a microCT scanner. MicroCT images (33.5 µm isotropic voxels) were obtained in a pre- and post-loaded state and BoneDVC was used to quantify full-field experimental strains (≈ 1 mm nodal spacing, accuracy = 351 µstrain, precision = 518 µstrain). Continuum-level FEMs with two types of boundary conditions (BCs) were simulated: DVC-driven and force-driven. Accuracy of the FEMs was found to be sensitive to the BC simulated with better agreement found with the use of DVC-driven BCs (slope = 0.83, r2 = 0.80) compared to force-driven BCs (slope = 0.22, r2 = 0.12). This study quantified mechanical strain distributions within OA trabecular bone and demonstrated the importance of BCs to ensure the accuracy of predictions generated by corresponding FEMs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 87 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurthan Kersch ◽  
Elmar Woschke

Abstract This work proposes a new method for the fatigue damage evaluation of vibrational loads, based on preceding investigations on the relationship between stresses and modal velocities. As a first step, the influence of the geometry on the particular relationship is studied. Therefore, an analytic expression for Euler Bernoulli beams with a non-constant cross section is derived. Afterward, a general method for obtaining geometric factors from finite element (FE) models is proposed. In order to ensure a fast fatigue damage evaluation, strongly simplified FE-models are used for the determination of both factors and measurement locations. The entire method is demonstrated on three mechanical structures and indicates a better compromise between effort and accuracy than existing methods. For all examples, the usage of velocities and geometric factors obtained from simplified FE models enables a sufficient fatigue damage calculation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan P. Vande Geest ◽  
B. R. Simon ◽  
Paul H. Rigby ◽  
Tyler P. Newberg

Finite element models (FEMs) including characteristic large deformations in highly nonlinear materials (hyperelasticity and coupled diffusive/convective transport of neutral mobile species) will allow quantitative study of in vivo tissues. Such FEMs will provide basic understanding of normal and pathological tissue responses and lead to optimization of local drug delivery strategies. We present a coupled porohyperelastic mass transport (PHEXPT) finite element approach developed using a commercially available ABAQUS finite element software. The PHEXPT transient simulations are based on sequential solution of the porohyperelastic (PHE) and mass transport (XPT) problems where an Eulerian PHE FEM is coupled to a Lagrangian XPT FEM using a custom-written FORTRAN program. The PHEXPT theoretical background is derived in the context of porous media transport theory and extended to ABAQUS finite element formulations. The essential assumptions needed in order to use ABAQUS are clearly identified in the derivation. Representative benchmark finite element simulations are provided along with analytical solutions (when appropriate). These simulations demonstrate the differences in transient and steady state responses including finite deformations, total stress, fluid pressure, relative fluid, and mobile species flux. A detailed description of important model considerations (e.g., material property functions and jump discontinuities at material interfaces) is also presented in the context of finite deformations. The ABAQUS-based PHEXPT approach enables the use of the available ABAQUS capabilities (interactive FEM mesh generation, finite element libraries, nonlinear material laws, pre- and postprocessing, etc.). PHEXPT FEMs can be used to simulate the transport of a relatively large neutral species (negligible osmotic fluid flux) in highly deformable hydrated soft tissues and tissue-engineered materials.


Author(s):  
B. R. Simon ◽  
G. A. Radtke ◽  
P. H. Rigby ◽  
S. K. Williams ◽  
Z. P. Liu

Soft tissues are hydrated fibrous materials that exhibit nonlinear material response and undergo finite straining during in vivo loading. A continuum model of these structures (“LMPHETS” [1,2]) is a porous solid matrix (with charges fixed to the solid fibers) saturated by a mobile fluid (water) and multiple species (e.g., three mobile species designated by α, β = p, m, b where p = +, m = −, and b = ± charge) dissolved in the mobile fluid. A “mixed” LMPHETS theory and finite element models (FEMs) were presented [1] in which the “primary fields” are the displacements, ui = xi − Xi and the mechano-electro-chemical potentials, ν˜ξ* (ξ, η = f, e, m, b) that are continuous across material interfaces. “Secondary fields” (discontinuous at material boundaries) are mechanical fluid pressure, pf; electrical potential, μ˜e; and concentration or “molarity”, cα = dnα / dVf. Here an extended version of these models is described and numerical results are presented for representative test problems associated with transport in soft tissues.


2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (7) ◽  
pp. 1189-1199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Naghibi Beidokhti ◽  
Dennis Janssen ◽  
Sebastiaan van de Groes ◽  
Nico Verdonschot

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Weiss ◽  
Richard D. Rabbitt ◽  
Anton E. Bowden ◽  
Bradley N. Maker

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