Biomechanics of Bone
As computer simulation has been widely used for analysis such as the strength of a structure or the flow of a fluid, it has become indispensable in the engineering field. Simulation is also spreading in medical research, for example blood flow in the vessel or joint force during walking.
With regard to bones, mechanical research has been conducted since the 19th century, and after the coming of computers, evaluation using finite element analysis has been attempted. In the 1990s, after the material properties of bone were obtained experimentally, it became possible to construct patient-specific finite element models from Computed Tomography (CT) data, and many correlations were reported with mechanical tests using cadaver. Since then, Quantitative CT-based Finite Element Analysis (QCT/FEA), which reflects patient-specific bone geometry and density distribution, has become the mainstream.
On the other hand, general-purpose FEA software is hard for busy doctors to handle, so finite element analysis of bones was the domain of engineers. Furthermore, when it comes to QCT/FEA, it is more difficult because it requires combining multiple software. MECHANICAL FINDER has been developed to enable such doctors to perform QCT/FEA. Nowadays, with the improvement of computer performance, complex models can be analyzed, and with MECHANICAL FINDER, doctors themselves can do the analysis without relying on engineers.
Why MECHANICAL FINDER?
Finite element analysis of bone is now widely performed, and we believe many medical doctors are interested in it. However, general-purpose FEA software is difficult to learn because of its multifunctionality, and it is necessary to combine it with other software, tools or addons to create a patient-specific model. These make busy doctors feel that the threshold is too high to perform FEA by themselves. MECHANICAL FINDER was developed with the aim of being used by such doctors as well. As a matter of fact, MECHANICAL FINDER users in medical and dental field is larger than that in engineering and account for over 70%. Of course, it has enough functions to satisfy even the engineering researchers.
Features
Recent Papers
Many studies using MECHANICAL FINDER have been published in the journals. For more papers, click here.
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Research Center of Computational Mechanics, Inc. |
