Design method for mechanically adaptive re-entrant metamaterials and its application to patient-specific femoral stems
摘要
The femoral stem is a critical implant in total hip arthroplasty; however, conventional designs often suffer from mechanical mismatch with the host bone. This study aimed to propose a rapid design strategy for re-entrant metamaterials with tailored mechanical properties, which was applied to the development of patient-specific femoral stems. A total of 300 reentrant lattice structures (16 mm × 16 mm × 16 mm) were developed by varying the re-entrant angle (θ: 50°–90°), the side length of the strut cross section (t: 0.36–1.09 mm), and compression direction (d: y or z axis). Stress-strain curves from quasi-static compression tests were used to train a back propagation neural network (BPNN) model, where 31 characteristic stress values and Poisson’s ratio served as input parameters, and θ, t, and d as output parameters. Predictive performance of the BPNN model was evaluated using the root mean square error (RMSE) and the coefficient of determination (R2). The well-trained BPNN model was then applied to match the mechanical properties of the cancellous bone obtained from subject-specific finite element analysis, thereby identifying the adaptive re-entrant structure for designing the lateral configuration of the femoral stem. The BPNN model achieved high predictive accuracy (RMSE ≤ 3.09°, R2 ≥ 0.92 for θ, RMSE = 0.04 mm, R2 ≥ 0.96 for t, and 100% for d). Implantation of the mechanically adaptive femoral stem produced distributions of stress and strain energy density (SED) in the six Gruen zones (G1-G5 and G7) comparable to those of the intact femur, with average von Mises stresses and SEDs ranging from 80% to 120% of the corresponding intact bone values. The BPNN-based inverse design framework enables precise tailoring of lattice structures for mechanical compatibility, effectively mitigating stress shielding and promoting osseointegration in patient-specific orthopedic implants.