A Computer-aided Multi-scale Modeling and Direct Fabrication of Bone Structure

A multi-scale voxel modeling approach was presented to model the bone structure both in macroscopic and microscopic level. Based on the digital image, the overall macroscopic geometry of the vertebrate was acquired by traditional reverse engineering technology and the microscopic random trabecular network was described by two-point correlation function and the function was then used to reconstruct the bone microstructure. It was shown that the reconstructed model is statistically equivalent to the original structure in the microscopic level and the design intension can be integrated in the developed model. A direct-fabrication process planning was also developed based on the voxel model. The advantage is that there is no need for slicing process in this process which is a costly and essential process for traditional rapid prototype technology.