Analysis of the Architecture and Mechanical Properties of Cancellous Bone Using 2D Voronoi Cell Based Models

Cancellous bone possesses a complicated structure of beam and plate-like elements whose architecture depends on the specific tissue and physiology of the individual. Classical, Voxel-based modelling is computation intensive and thus sub-optimal for parametric studies. Therefore, synthetic 2D-microstructures, based on sections of cancellous bone were generated and the effect of local architecture (vertebra and femur), bone density and loss of connectivity was researched by varying the parameters of the model. It was demonstrated that the use of bone density as a sole parameter induces considerable uncertainty on the assessment of the rigidity and resistance of the tissue under consideration.