A method to represent heterogeneous materials for rapid prototyping: the Matryoshka approach
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a new method for representing heterogeneous materials using nested STL shells, based, in particular, on the density distributions of human bones.
Design/methodology/approach
Nested STL shells, called Matryoshka models, are described, based on their namesake Russian nesting dolls. In this approach, polygonal models, such as STL shells, are “stacked” inside one another to represent different material regions. The Matryoshka model addresses the challenge of representing different densities and different types of bone when reverse engineering from medical images. The Matryoshka model is generated via an iterative process of thresholding the Hounsfield Unit (HU) data using computed tomography (CT), thereby delineating regions of progressively increasing bone density. These nested shells can represent regions starting with the medullary (bone marrow) canal, up through and including the outer surface of the bone.
Findings
The Matryoshka approach introduced can be used to generate accurate models of heterogeneous materials in an automated fashion, avoiding the challenge of hand-creating an assembly model for input to multi-material additive or subtractive manufacturing.
Originality/value
This paper presents a new method for describing heterogeneous materials: in this case, the density distribution in a human bone. The authors show how the Matryoshka model can be used to plan harvesting locations for creating custom rapid allograft bone implants from donor bone. An implementation of a proposed harvesting method is demonstrated, followed by a case study using subtractive rapid prototyping to harvest a bone implant from a human tibia surrogate.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the NIH/NIAMS (P50AR055533 and R21AR054015), the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust at the University of Iowa, State of Iowa Economic Development appropriations to the Board of Regents under the Grow Iowa Values Fund and the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation. The authors would also like to recognize the technical support of Mr. Gary Ohrt and Dr. Thad Thomas at the University of Iowa.
Citation
Lei, S., C. Frank, M., D. Anderson, D. and D. Brown, T. (2014), "A method to represent heterogeneous materials for rapid prototyping: the Matryoshka approach", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 20 No. 5, pp. 390-402. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-10-2012-0095
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited