FEMUR STRENGTH STUDY TO IMPROVE HIP FRACTURE RISK ASSESSMENT: BUILDING AND VALIDATING A FINITE ELEMENT MODEL FROM START TO FINISH

Hip fractures, typically the result of falls from a standing position, pose a significant socio-economic burden globally, particularly as populations continue to age. They lead to prolonged hospital stays and higher mortality rates compared to fractures at other sites, highlighting the need to identify at-risk individuals and implement personalized preventive treatments. Femoral strength, determined by destructive mechanical testing, has been used to estimate hip fracture risk, where low femoral strength corresponds to high fracture risk. However, since testing is destructive, the same femur cannot be tested under varying loading conditions (e.g. with femur augmentation). To address this limitation, a calibrated, specimen-specific finite element (FE) model can act as a control for experimental hypotheses, enabling predictions of femoral strength. In collaboration with the University of Bologna, we are conducting a paired femur study involving destructive testing to evaluate femoral strength. We are now looking for a motivated master’s student to build specimen-specific FE models to match the experiments. In this role, you will gain hands-on experience in FE model building (using LS-Dyna and Python) from start to finish, including segmentation of CT scans, material mapping of the femurs, determination of model boundary conditions and model validation based on measured conditions of the experiment and results.

Keywords: Hip fracture, femur strength, finite element analysis, simulation, computational modelling, programming, model validation, biomechanics, mechanical testing, mechanical engineering

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Location

Bone Pathologies and Treatment (ETHZ)

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• Medical and Health Sciences
• Information, Computing and Communication Sciences
• Engineering and Technology
• Biology

Documents

Name	Comment	Size	Actions
MasterThesisProject_FemurStrengthStudy.pdf		226KB	Download