Finite Element Analysis of Human Femur Bone

FAZAL ZEHRAN (18957)
AREEZ KHAN (19993)

 Femur bone is also known as thigh bone. The femur bone is the longest, heaviest
and strongest bone in the human body. The length of this bone is almost 26% of the
height of person.
 Femur bone is divided into three parts: upper extremity, body and lower extremity.
 An effort is made to analyse the stresses experienced by the human femur. In order
to achieve these results a CAD model was developed by using the 3-D scanning of
generic human femur for an individual of 70 kg weight (approx. averaged adult
weight). The marrow cavity has been approximated as a hollow cylinder.
 In this work, FEA is used to analyse the human femur bone.
 Finite element method (FEM) is a technique of solution of the boundary value
problems.
 It can be explained as a numerical method for solving differential and integral
equations. Finite element analysis (FEA) is the practical application of FEM.
 FEA is a computational tool for carrying out engineering analysis. It can be used
for analysis of new product designs as well as for the existing designs using the
equations of mechanics of materials.
 Two different specimens of human femur bones were collected for this study. Given
specimens were from the subjects of around 70 Kg in weight.
 3-D laser scanning was performed on available specimens using NextGen® 3D

laser scanner. From this procedure data cloud was obtained which can be imported
in CAD software to obtain the geometric features of a femur bone. Obtained data
cloud is shown in Figure 2.
 Femur CAD model was developed in SolidWorks® using the technique of
transforming 2D geometry into 3D
 At this stage CAD model was obtained based on external geometric features of
femur bone however, the internal detail (e.g. marrow cavity) in CAD was
approximated.
 The dimensions of marrow cavity are hard to know considering it is hallow imprint
within the bone.
 The dimensions of marrow cavity were approximated in this work with a hallow
cylinder following the curvature of the bone with spherical ends. The diameter of
marrow cavity was taken as 1.6 cm.
Marrow cavity is hallowing
CAD model of human femur (SolidWorks®) cut curving cylinder of
radius 1.6 cm with spherical
ends
 FEA mesh represents the nodes and elements for structural calculations. In this
work, FEA mesh was generated on 3D CAD model of femur bone.
 Tetrahedral 20-noded 186 Structural Solid elements were used to build the FEA
mesh
 FEA mesh was generated using the auto-mesh generation algorithm in FEA
software ANSYS®
 Mesh refinement was performed in desired segments of the bone to avoid
unrealistic stress concentration points. Furthermore mesh was refined in regions of
higher gradients to magnify the accuracy of results. Mesh sensitivity analysis was
also carried out to ensure the quality of results
 Two different kind of loading conditions were applied to simulate real case
scenarios.
 In first case axial loading (compression) was applied in direction of the bone. This
case simulates the weight handled by femur in upright standing position.
 In second case bending load (perpendicular) is applied to femur bone.
 In both cases boundary constraint was applied on the other end of the femur bone.
Summary of stresses from axial and bending loadings; * indicates failure
 FEA analysis is performed on model of femur bone by varying the loads. The
maximum stresses generated in this analysis are given in Table 1. The failure stress
is taken as 100 MPa based on experimental data available in literature [4]. The
results indicate the failure of femur bone under the loading of 414 Kg of weight
under axial loading and 69 Kg of load under the bending load. The results clearly
indicate that the strength of femur bone in axial direction is significantly more than
compared to bending. The point of high stress is indicated in Figure 7.
 Following conclusions can be drawn from FEM analysis of human femur bone:
 1 Axial strength of femur is almost six times than bending.
 2 Human femur can withstand ten times the load of its body weight.
 3 Evaluated results are the indicative of the failure criteria of substitute material
for bones.
 4 Given methodology can be used over other biomechanical structures for study
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FAZAL ZEHRAN (18957)

AREEZ KHAN (19993)

 3-D laser scanning was performed on available specimens using NextGen® 3D

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