NUMERICAL PREDICTION OF THE COMPONENT-RATIO-DEPENDENT COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF BONE CEMENT

Abstract

Changes in the compression strength of the PMMA bone cement with a variable powder/liquid component mix ratio were investigated. The strength test data served to develop basic mathematical models and an artificial neural network was employed for strength predictions. The empirical and numerical results were compared to determine modelling errors and assess the effectiveness of the proposed methods and models. The advantages and disadvantages of mathematical modelling are discussed.

Keywords

• artificial neural networks
• mathematical modelling
• biomaterials
• bone cement