Mechanical simulation of composite hip stems

Calculation of new orthopedic implants prior to manufacturing of prototypes can be economic in the case of complex production processes. The use of composite materials for highly loaded hip stems is one application of the Finite-Element Method. Due to the anisotropic behaviour of composite structures, special routines had to be programmed for element alignment and failure analysis. Stability of carbon fibre-reinforced epoxy hip stems could be confirmed by experimental results. The risk of neck fracture was found to be one of the critical features in the design process.