Publication Date:
2012-04-18
Description:
Bone tissues are formed by cells, bone matrix and fluids. The bone matrix is a porous structure, which is remodelled by bone-cells. To describe this process, a coupled systems-biological and biomechanical model is presented. The macroscopic mechanical behaviour of bone is specified by a biphasic model embedded in the Theory of Porous Media, where the solid phase represents cells and bone matrix, and the fluid phase summarises the extracellular fluids and its components. In this context, the bone remodelling process is described on the macro-scale by a distinct mass exchange that also results in a change of the constituents'material properties. On the micro-scale, the description of the bone remodelling process stems from a systems-biological cell interaction model. Therein, the bone matrix formation and resorption are a result of the stress-regulated activity of cells. Here, a staggered solutions strategy is presented. Therein, snapshots of the mechanical stress distribution are calculated on the macro-scale by use of the finite element method. The snapshots are locally evaluated on the micro-scale by use of a cell interaction model, which calculates the long term remodelling process. The evaluation results of the micro-scale are then used to update the reference configuration of the mechanical simulation. As an integrative modelling platform scientific workflows and web-service technologies are employed. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Electronic ISSN:
1617-7061
Topics:
Mathematics
,
Physics
,
Technology
