Development and Validation of Finite Element Models for the 9 Years-old Child’s C4-C5 Cervical Spine Based on Mesh Morphing

Abstract

The traditional finite element (FE) modeling method of manually generating high-quality mesh is very time-consuming. In this study, a method of identifying and extracting landmarks automatically was proposed. 9 years old child's C4-C5 cervical spine based on mesh morphing was developed rapidly. A scaling method was used to calculate the material properties of 9 years old child's C4-C5 cervical spine. The morphed FE model was validated by 9 years old child's post-mortem human subject data under the conditions of stretch, flexion and extension. The analysis results showed that the time for landmarks selection was reduced by 2/3 to 3/4 through the automatic method in comparison to the traditional method. The mesh quality of the morphed FE model was of higher quality and was close to the baseline FE model. The mean geometric error was 0.46 mm. The simulated output value of the model was in good agreement with the experimental value, and the accuracy was over 90%. This proposed method can save large amount of time for identifying and extracting landmarks and can develop the morphed model with high biomechanical fidelity. At the same time, the method shows a strong adaptability and can be applied to the finite element modeling of various complex geometries.

Keywords: mesh morphing,  rapid,  child’s cervical spine,  FE model,  validation