Bone tissue remodelling analysis considering a radial point interpolator meshless method

In this work the natural neighbour radial point interpolation method (NNRPIM), an improved meshless method, is extended to the bone remodelling analysis. A biomechanical model for predicting the bone density distribution was developed. The proposed gradient remodelling algorithm considers an anisotropic material law for the mechanical behaviour of the bone tissue, based on experimental data available in the literature, allowing to gradually correlate the bone density with the obtained level of stress. The viability and efficiency of the model were successfully tested on the classical femur bone example and a novel calcaneus bone example under multiple loading conditions. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.