Hexahedral mesh development of free-formed geometry: The human femur exemplified

The objective of the present research is to develop a standard hexahedral Finite Element (FE) model of the human femur accounting for the material characteristics of cortical bone, cancellous bone and bone marrow. The anatomical data were acquired from the Visible Human Project. A detailed outline of the steps necessary in developing hexahedral FE meshes from computed tomography (CT) data is provided, along with a section on modelling strategies providing comprehensive suggestions on how to overcome meshing difficulties due to geometrical non-linearities. The stress and deformation results are discussed.