Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) can arise from compression loading when a vertebra fractures and bone fragments are pushed into the spinal canal. Experimental studies have demonstrated the importance of both fracture initiation and post-fracture response in the investigation of vertebral fractures and spinal canal occlusion resulting from compression. Finite element models, such as the Global Human Body Models Consortium (GHBMC) model, focused on predicting the initiation location of fractures using element erosion to model hard tissue fracture. However, the element erosion method resulted in a loss of material and structural support during compression, which limited the ability of the model to predict the post-fracture response. The current study aimed to improve the post-fracture response by combining strain-based element erosion with smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) to preserve the volume of the trabecular bone during compression fracture. The proposed implementation was evaluated using a model comprising two functional spinal units (FSUs) (C5-C6-C7) extracted from the GHBMC 50th percentile male model, and loaded under central compression. The original and enhanced models were compared to experimental force-displacement data and measured occlusion of the spinal canal. The enhanced model with SPH improved the shape and magnitude of the force-displacement response to be in good agreement with the experimental data. In contrast to the original model, the enhanced SPH model demonstrated occlusion on the same order of magnitude as reported in the experiments. The SPH implementation improved the post-fracture response by representing the damaged material post-fracture, providing structural support throughout compression loading and material flow leading to occlusion.
Keywords: Cervical spine; Erosion-based hard tissue fracture; Finite element model; Fracture energy; Smoothed particle hydrodynamics; Vertebral fracture.
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