Finite element analysis of fibre-reinforced constitutive formulation of Cadisc-L

Abstract

The current study measures the mechanical behavior of both natural and the monobloc elastomeric disc prosthesis (Cadisc TM-L) by employing a finite element method (FEM) to study the fiberreinforced constitutive formulation provided in the literature. The three-dimensional geometry was created by computed tomography (CT) scan imaging technique. Frontal pure rotational, sagittal, and axial momentum of 7.5 N•m were applied on the top of L3 while the lower half of the L5 was fixed in all directions. This investigation was performed considering two stages: (1) intact L3-L5 lumbar spine (INT model), and (2) Cadisc implemented between L4 and L5 (IMP model). The numerical results for the INT model were validated by experimental data from the literature. Several parameters including the inter-segmental rotation, range of motion in flexion-extension, axial rotation and lateral bending were analyzed. Our numerical results show that the IMP model has a 50% reduction in the 'range of motion' and a 33% reduction in flexion in lateral bending compared to the INT model. These outcomes of this paper reveal the feasibility of applying a fibrereinforced constitutive formulation to generate an accurate three-dimensional FEM model.