The Effects of Frictionless/Frictional Contact Boundary Conditions in Finite Element Modeling of Mandibular Fractures

Finite element (FE) modeling of the human dentate mandible is the method of choice currently used for simulating structural fracture analyses in the mandibular region. A finite element model of a parasymphyseal fracture with an internal rigid fixation plate-screw system has been developed to compare the effects of including frictionless/frictional contact boundary conditions at the fracture site. It is common practice to ignore contact boundary conditions in FE modeling of mandibular fractures due to the non-linearities causing increased computational requirements. The stress distributions and displacements of the mandibular fracture region indicate a significant difference resulting from the introduction of realistic contact boundary conditions. These current findings suggest that even though the modeling of extreme situations, i.e. non-contact modeling of unhealed fractures, may provide insight to non-union problems, future mandibular fracture models should include frictional contact boundary conditions. This is in order to capture more realistic behavior of the system to be analyzed.