Procedures and evaluation of the stress strain fields on the Locking Compression Plates

Abstract

Locking Compression Plates (LCP) have found great application in the orthopedic healing process in the modern medicine nowadays. Their design is specifically modified depending on the bone and the loading a specific bone is subjected to. Dimensions of LCP as well as mechanical characteristics provide greater structural resistance than the bone itself, but as a consequence of continues application as well as cyclic loading, practice has shown that fails and breaks accrue. Defining of the testing approaches and procedures used for the evaluation of the stress and location of the potentially risk geometrical areas represent the aim of this paper. Results obtained in this paper apply modern experimental as well as numerical simulations on the modified and simplified LCP geometry with an aim to locate stress and strain fields, as well as areas with a stress concentration that can result in the appearance of the cracks during the cyclic loading.