Healing Assessment of Fractured Femur by Strain Measurement using Fibre Bragg Grating Sensors

Biomedical applications of Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors have considerably widened where measurement of strain, temperature, pressure of bones and tissues are important. Bone fracture recovery process and fitness for resumption of physical activities are major and controversial issues which need attention. Measuring bone strain as well as prosthesis-bone relative movements during healing process can offer valuable data on the recovered tissue and bone fracture. Analyzing data will give knowledge on the most appropriate period of time to safely apply loads on the fractured bone or to remove the embedded orthopaedic implant out of the patient's body. The aim of this research is to use FBG arrays to conduct in-vitro experimental tests on a synthetic femur sawbones to study the strain distribution over the bone surface under compression and analyze the obtained data for future in-vivo surgeries. The derived data illustrate the applicability of FBGs for assessment of bone fracture recovery and demonstrate how the gratings on the longitudinal FBG array have reacted to the compressive loads as well as their feasibility for future in-vivo tests.