Finite Element Modelling of Titanium Foam Behaviour for Dental Application.

The use of titanium foam (Ti-foam) as an implant material has gained a lot of interest recently due to its good biocompatibility as well as stable fixation between implant and human bone. A finite element model is required in order to effectively design appropriate implants. Accurate finite element analyses rely on accuracy and efficiency of the applied material models. Mechanical behaviour of the Ti-foam under loadings are different from the solid titanium therefore an appropriate metal foam constitutive model is needed. In this paper, the Deshpande and Fleck model which is available as the crushable foam model in the ABAQUS finite element software has been employed together with appropriate material parameters to describe the deformation behaviour of the Ti-foam with various porosity levels under compressive and bending loads. The simulation results have been compared against recently published data. Good comparisons have been seen. This validated Ti-foam material model has been employed to study stress distributions on the Ti-foam dental implant system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]