Computational modelling of bone microstructure

Abstract

Abstract Bone microstructure plays an important role in providing the support for human skeleton, allowing the transport of nutrients, providing the spaces for cell activities, etc. Bone microstructure is linked to many bone diseases, such as osteoporosis. Additionally, many human-made products have the design mimicking bone microstructure. Therefore, understanding the morphological, biological, and mechanical mechanism of bone microstructure will have many biomedical implications. Computational modelling is one of the crucial approaches for studying the mechanisms of bone microstructures. It can provide the information, which cannot be obtained through physical mechanical testing, such as the stress and strain distribution in the three-dimensional bone space and in the in vivo scenario. However, when performing the computational modelling of bone microstructure, there are still many unclear issues, e.g., the imaging protocol for scanning the bone microstructure, the finite element mesh generation technique, the bone constitutive models, the calibration and validation of the computational models, etc. Therefore, this study aimed to provide a state-of-art review in the computational modelling of bone microstructure. In particular, the following parts will be reviewed and discussed: (1) the medical imaging protocols used to scan the bone microstructure; (2) the techniques to generate the finite element meshes from the medical images; (3) the material models used to describe the mechanical behaviors of bone microstructure; (4) the boundary conditions used in the finite element models, and (5) the techniques to validate the finite element models of bone microstructure. The final goals of the present study are to provide guidance on the application of the finite element method in the modelling of bone microstructure, to enhance the understanding of the mechanical functions of bone microstructures, and to foster collaborations among different disciplines.