PSI - Issue 28

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2020) 000–000

www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 28 (2020) 1755–1760

1st Virtual European Conference on Fracture Finite Element Modeling of the Functional Spinal Unit under Compression Loads Hassan Mansour Raheem a,b * , Mohanad Aljanabi b

a Mechanical Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Kufa, Najaf, 54001, Iraq b Ministry of Oil, Midland Refineries Company, Karbala Refinery, Karbala, 56001, Iraq

© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS) ExCo Abstract The present paper implements Finite Element Analysis (FEA) models to investigate the effects of changing nucleus pulposus status on the mechanical response of the human intervertebral disc under axial compression loads. The functional unit, which includes the upper, lower vertebrae and the intervertebral disc of the lumbar region, was considered in the modeling. The material properties of the disc were modeled as linear elastic. The variations of the nucleus pulposus were studied in such disc without a nucleus pulposus with a nucleus pulposus, and with partial removal of nucleus pulposus to determine the effects of nucleus pulposus situation on the mechanics of the disc. The findings showed that the response of the disc is susceptible to the nucleus pulposus condition. The response of the model was in line with those of the literature data. © 2020 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS) ExCo Keywords: Finite element modeling; Intervertebral disc; Axial compression loads; Nucleus pulposus; Lumbar region 1. Introduction The functional unit of the human spinal column consists of the upper, lower vertebrae, and the intervertebral disc. Three distinctive regions are the main components of the intervertebral disc. The central part of the disc is the nucleus pulpous NP, which is surrounded by the fibrosus texture, the annulus fibrosus AF, and the third region is the endplates that separate the disc at the surface with the upper and lower vertebrae. It is crucial to study the mechanism of the functional unit of the spinal column to understand the low back pain, particularly NP. This is because of the _______ * Corresponding author. +964-781-793-7099. E ‐ mail address: enghas25@gmail.com u

2452-3216 © 2020 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS) ExCo

2452-3216 © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS) ExCo 10.1016/j.prostr.2020.10.151