Analysis of Crack Propagation in Human Long Bone by Using Finite Element Modeling

The aim of this research is to present a numerical modeling of crack for human long bone specifically on femur shaft bone under mode I loading condition. Two-dimensional model (2D) of long bone was developed based on past research study. The finite element analysis and construction of the model are done using Mechanical APDL (ANSYS) v14.0 software. The research was conducted mainly based on two conditions that were at different crack lengths and different loading forces for male and female. In order to evaluate the stress intensity factor (K-I) of the femur shaft of long bone, this research employed finite element method to predict the brittle fracture loading by using three-point bending test. The result of numerical test found that the crack was formed when the crack length reached 0.0022 m where K-I values are proportional with the crack's length. Also, various loading forces in range of 400 N to 1000 N were applied in an attempt to study their effect on stress intensity factor and it was found that the female dimension has higher K-I values compared to male. It was also observed that K values found by this method have good agreement with theoretical results based on previous research.