COMPARISON OF GEOMETRY-BASED AND CT VOXEL-BASED FINITE-ELEMENT MODELING AND EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION

The objectives of the paper presented here is the comparison of a geom etry-based and voxel-based finite element (FE) method preprocessor of the human femur. The models were experimentally validated by strain ga uge measurements (principal stress). The correlation coefficients (r) between the three methods (geometry-based FEM, voxel-based FEM, strain gauge measurements) were found to be in the range 0.91-0.94 (r(2): 0. 84-0.88). The relationships between the samples are highly significant (P = 0.001), where the strain gauge results are the independent varia bles. These results suggest that the validity with respect to the prin cipal stress of a voxel-based modelling is similar to the validity of geometry-based modelling. In summary, therefore, we conclude that voxe l-based meshing allows a straightforward interfacing with computerized tomography (CT) scans and might contribute to a clinically applicable FEM technology. (C) 1998 IPEM. Published by :Elsevier Science Ltd. Al l rights reserved.