Ia-FEMesh: anatomic FE models--a check of mesh accuracy and validity

Musculoskeletal finite element (FE) analysis is an invaluable tool in orthopaedic research. Unfortunately, the demands that accompany anatomic mesh development often limit its utility. To ease the burden of mesh development and to address the need for subject-specific analysis, we developed IA-FEMesh, a user-friendly toolkit for generating hexahedral FE models. This study compared our multiblock meshing technique to widely accepted meshing methods. Herein, the meshes under consideration consisted of the phalanx bones of the index finger. Both accuracy and validity of the models were addressed. Generating a hexahedral mesh using IA-FEMesh was found to be comparable to automated tetrahedral mesh generation in terms of preprocessing time. A convergence study suggested that the optimal number of hexahedral elements needed to mesh the distal, middle, and proximal phalanx bones were 3402, 4950, and 4550 respectively. Moreover, experimental studies were used to validate the mesh definitions. The contact areas predicted by the models compared favorably with the experimental findings (percent error < 13.2%). With the accuracy and validity of the models confirmed, accompanied by the relative ease with which the models can be generated, we believe IA-FEMesh holds the potential to contribute to multi-subject analyses, which are pertinent for clinical studies.