Finite element analysis of the skull implant using ansys software

The skull or cranium forms a protective cover for the brain and the sense organs, and provides a basis for the face. A head injury is any trauma that leads to injury of the scalp, skull, or brain. The injuries can range from a minor bump on the skull to serious brain injury. A penetrating head injury occurs when an object pierces the skull and breaches the duramater. Serious head injuries may cause coma, chronic headaches, loss of or change in sensation, hearing, vision, taste, or smell, paralysis, seizures, speech and language problems. The repair of severe skull injuries can be done with the help of customized cranial implants. A CT-scan of patient with head injury is taken that helped to visualise the defected area. It showed a hole on the left side of the patient's forehead. The distance and diameter measurements of the defect are taken which showed the severity of the injury. Top to bottom (vertical) distance is measured as 34.07mm, right to left (horizontal) distance is measured as 174.19mm and diameter is measured as 38.87mm. To repair this defect, creation of the implant was needed which was carried out with the help of a software called MIMICS (Materialise's Interactive Medical Image Control System, Belgium). It is Materialise's software for processing CT and MRI images. It uses 2D cross-sectional images to construct 3D models, which can then be directly linked to other tools like rapid prototyping (RP), computer-aided design (CAD), surgical simulation (part of the MIMICS software) and other advanced engineering analysis. By using surgical simulation tools a suitable and accurately fit implant was created. After creation of implant the finite element analysis (FEA) of the implant was carried out with the help of ANSYS Software. Skull implants can be made by different biocompatible materials. In this paper three biocompatible materials such as titanium, steel and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) have been selected and their finite element analysis were carried out under different static load conditions to obtain the material with maximum strength, displacement and less stress and strain distribution pattern.