Abstract:
The above-knee amputation is a common challenge and has been increasing in recent times
due to accidents, chronic infections and aging. Therefore, it is very important to investigate
and characterize biocompatible materials and femur bone replacement and implantation to
tackle bone amputation challenges. This research used theoretical and numerical
approaches to investigate the compatibility of different biomaterials which are
commercially pure titanium metal (CP Ti), magnesium alloy (AZ31) and Polymethyl
methacrylate (PMMA) for the implantation of the femur bone, and the propertied critical
load, contact pressure, critical stress, the natural frequency with different modes, and
fatigue life were determined. Materialise interactive medical imageing control system
software was used to create a three-dimensional model of the human femur bone based on
CT scan data and the volumetric mesh was created with 3-MATIC software. The bone
material property was determined through apparent density and allocated for different
regions of femur bone based on hounsfield unit value, and homogenization was done using
DIGIMAT software. The prosthesis bone plate and the hip joint were designed according
to the specifications proposed by the TIPSAN catalogue, ASTM F2996-13 and ISO 7206-4:2010(E) standards. The results showed that for total femur replacement and implantation
at the interface by AZ31 material, the natural frequency was 38% and 15% higher than the
natural femur bone respectively, whereas for an implant with total hip replacement CP Ti
was better with 22% higher natural frequency than the natural femur bone. For all implants;
total femur replacement, implant at the interface and total hip replacement, CP Ti was
197.65kN, 35kN and 36kN which are 90%, 54% & 55.36% higher weight carrying capacity
than natural femur bone respectively and PMMA material was 0.16284Mpa, 0.41654Mpa
and 0.25941Mpa which are 60%, 2.2% & 57% lower in contact pressure than natural femur
bone respectively. The fatigue life of 1.0042 * 10
6
and energy absorption for femur bone
replaced by AZ31 material were higher than that of CP Ti, PMMA and natural femur bone
life. The RSM response shows for higher body weight increment, the critical load for femur
bone replaced by AZ31 material was obtained to be 30.4 kN and 14 kN for CP Ti.
KeyWords: Femur bone; Biocompatibility; Numerical modeling; Implant; MIMICS.