The Prediction of Femoral Fracture Location Using Extended Finite Element Method

The advances in the extended finite element method enable the prediction of crack initiation and propagation without prior knowledge about the crack pattern. In this regard, the purpose of this study was to investigate human femoral fracture location using voxel-based finite element simulation. The simulation was developed in terms of an anisotropic failure mechanism coupled to the extended finite element method to describe the femoral progressive fracture pattern in specimen-specific models. An anisotropic failure mechanism (4 damage criteria) was developed based on the combination of Hashin failure criteria and maximum principal stress criterion to capture femur fracture behavior dependency on femur anisotropy and heterogeneity. Three specimen-specific femur FE models were constructed based on CT-scan images under a particular loading condition. The load was applied to the head of the femur at an angle of -15 degrees relative to the sagittal and coronal planes. To demonstrate the potential of the current approach, a one-to-one comparison of predicted extended finite element method fracture pattern and experimental results were performed. An acceptable agreement was obtained between the predicted and observed fracture patterns suggesting that the proposed failure mechanism in the extended finite element method is capable to simulate femoral fracture type and progressive crack propagation. The presented results indicated that the crack on-set location and subsequent crack trajectories can be correctly captured using the proposed anisotropic failure mechanism in the extended finite element method.