Finite Element Analysis of Stress Distribution in Artificial Bone Plate and Fractured Femur Bone

Increasing the risk of serious diseases and accidents, medical science needs the most suitable artificial biomaterials for various medical applications. Demand for such biomaterials is increasing day by day which leads to development in the biomaterial field. In the current scenario, various advanced modeling and simulation software are available in the research field, which is very helpful in the prediction of the behavior of any material in its actual working condition. This software provides a virtual platform to understand the performance of targeted biomaterial without implanting it inside the human body. This work focuses on the same study in which different artificial biomaterials are used as fixation bone plates. Different materials have different mechanical, metallurgical, and chemical properties that affect the human femur bone differently. Hence, real femur bone is taken for creating a real environment, designed a bone plate with specific dimensions and assembled with real femur bone using screws. Further, stainless steel (SS), titanium, and titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) are selected by putting their specific properties with some assumptions. The stress distribution and total deformation in three different designed artificial bone plates are analyzed in the femur bone, artificial bone plates and screws assembly by applying load with boundary conditions. SS bone fixation plate depicted high stresses than titanium and titanium alloy due to less strength than titanium. The stress-shielding effect is also observed in this fixation plate that creates problems in the human body due to non-uniform stress distribution over host tissue and artificial implant. This study is very useful for the selection of suitable biomaterial as per the application according to the load-bearing capability of material and host tissue. The results of this study can be helpful to surgeons as well as manufacturers for designing customized bone fixation plates and screws with appropriate biomaterial.