Development of a 50th Percentile Female Femur Model

Paper in proceeding, 2021

This study illustrates the development of a generic femur model representative of a 50th percentile
female in terms of geometry, material data, and injury risk curve. A female femur model consisting of 14,520 hexahedral elements was developed, calibrated, and validated. The outer shape and cortical thickness of the femur shaft were adjusted to meet a regression model reported in
literature for an average 50 year old female. For the proximal femur, five computed tomography scans were
morphed to the target geometry and the mean thickness of the cortical bone was calculated. Material properties
for the cortical bone were calculated from experimental data for both tension and compression loading. To
validate the proximal femur mode and calibrate an injury risk curve, 15 dynamic drop-tower tests were
reproduced. For the validation of the femur shaft, 16 bending tests were simulated. The characteristics of the
experimental curves were generally well captured for experiments with normal bone density. Maximum principal
strains and 99th percentile strains of the cortical bone at the time of fracture were used to develop risk curves for
fractures of the proximal femur and the femur shaft, which were identified as the most relevant femoral injuries
in an accident analysis. The model as well as the post-processing scripts are openly available and can be applied
or further enhanced by other researchers.