The influence of partial volume effect on the finite element modeling of bone

Providing useful information on the geometrical topology and material properties, CT data has been widely used in the finite element modeling of bone. Many researches have demonstrated the relationship of apparent density of bone tissues and Hounsfield Unit (HU) and various empirical relationships between Young's modulus and the apparent bone density have been established. Due to the partial volume effect, especially the edge part of tissue, the HU value would be lowered down and further affect the reliability of FEM. By applying two methods for material assignment with one HU related and another HU unrelated on the same femoral CT data, this study is aimed to present the influence of partial volume effect on the finite element bone modeling.