Microscale poroelastic metamodel for efficient mesoscale bone remodelling simulations.

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Computational biology
• Bone physiology

Background:

• Bone functional tissue adaptation is a complex physiological process.
• Previous models predicted internal femur structure based on loading but lacked trabecular reorientation.
• Osteoclasts and osteoblasts are key cells in bone adaptation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To incorporate trabecular reorientation into a phenomenological bone adaptation model.
• To achieve this at a limited computational cost.
• To predict functional adaptation in a simplified proximal femur model.

Main Methods:

• Developed a metamodel from poroelastic microscale continuum simulations.
• Integrated the metamodel into a phenomenological mesoscale structural model.
• Applied the model to a simplified proximal femur structure.

Main Results:

• Successfully predicted the formation of clear, smooth trabecular tracts.
• The predicted tracts corresponded to known major trabecular groups in the femur.
• The model achieved functional adaptation prediction with minimal computational expense.

Conclusions:

• Trabecular reorientation can be effectively modeled within a phenomenological framework.
• This approach offers a computationally efficient method for predicting bone functional adaptation.
• The findings enhance our understanding of bone's response to mechanical stimuli.