Simulation of crack propagation in titanium mini dental implants (MDI)

Developments in mini dental implants (MDI) manufacturing are aimed at making them more biocompatible and, at the same time, lighter, more durable and simultaneously safer than the existing implants. But, occasionally, during installation the failure of MDI may occur or cracks may appear, which could lead to the later failure of MDI. In order to understand and assess crack growth in titanium MDI, Finite Element (FE) software packages ANSYS v13 and FRANC3D v5 have been used. Using FRANC3D software different crack sizes and shapes have been modeled and simulations of crack propagations in three-dimensional model of MDI have been performed. Based on simulation results, the approximate fatigue life of damaged MDI was calculated.