Structural study of a polymeric aortic valve prosthesis. Analysis for a hyperelastic material.

This work presents a structural computational simulation of a polymeric aortic valve prosthesis, made with a hyperelastic material (Styrene-Ethylene/Propylene-Styrene). The valve has a suture ring, three pillars placed at 120° and three leaflets. The analysis is based on a modification over previous designs consisting in a fillet concave surface to avoid stress concentration at the junctions between leaflets and pillars.

The interplay between BMU activity linked to mechanical stress, specific surface and inhibitory theory dictate bone mass distribution: Predictions from a 3D computational model.

Bone mechanical and biological properties are closely linked to its internal tissue composition and mass distribution, which are in turn governed by the purposeful action of the basic multicellular units (BMUs). The orchestrated action of osteoclasts and osteoblasts, the resorbing and forming tissue cells respectively, in BMUs is responsible for tissue maintenance, repair and adaptation to changing load demands through the phenomenon known as remodelling. In this work, a computational mechano-biological model of bone remodelling based on the inhibitory theory and a new scheme of bone resorption introduced previously in a 2D model, is extended to a 3D model of the real external geometry of a femur under normal walking loads.

The Phan-Thien and Tanner Model Applied to the Lubrication of Knee Prostheses.

This work aims to provide a contribution to determine a proper model for the study of fluid film lubrication for the reduction of knee prostheses failure due to polyethylene wear. The Phan-Thien and Tanner (PTT) rheological law and the elastic deformation of the articular surfaces were considered in this modeling. The governing equations were solved numerically for different geometries and different Weissenberg numbers.