ANATOMY- AND MORPHOLOGY-BASED SMOOTH FINITE ELEMENT MODELS OF THE VERTEBRAL BODY

Classical finite element (FE) models can estimate vertebral stiffness and strength with much lower computational effort than μFE analyses, but the accuracy of these models rely on calibrated material properties that are not necessarily consistent with experimental results. In general, trabecular bone material properties are scaled with CT density without accounting for local variations in architecture. Moreover, the cortex is often omitted or assigned with a constant thickness [Imai et al, 2006]. In this work, anatomyand morphologybased FE models were developed with experimentally validated fabric-based elastic properties for trabecular bone and a cortical shell with variable thickness.