Numerical Simulation of Fluid Shear Stress Distribution in Microcracks of Trabecular Bone

Bone is one of the hardest tissues in the human body, but it can undergo microcracks under long-term and periodic mechanical loads. The Newton iterative method was used to calculate the steady state, and the effects of different inlet and outlet pressures, trabecular gap width and height, and microcrack's depth and width on the fluid shear stress (FSS) were studied, and the gradient of FSS inside the microcrack was analyzed. The results show that the pressure difference and trabecular gap heigh are positively correlated with the FSS (the linear correlation coefficients R2 were 0.9768 and 0.96542, respectively). When the trabecular gap width was 100 mu m, the peak of FSS decreased by 28.57% compared with 800 and 400 mu m, and the gradient of FSS inside the microcrack was 0.1-0.4 Pa/mm. This study can help people more intuitively understand the internal fluid distribution of trabecular bone and provide a reliable theoretical basis for the subsequent construction of gradient FSS devices in vitro.