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Main >> Applications >> Sample problems

Bone heating due to drilling - QuickField simulation example

Bone fracture treatment and other orthopedic procedures often require the bone drilling. Transient temperature field in bone during a 20-second drilling process, including temperature rise at a specified point below the bone surface.

Engineering question

How to find temperature rise during bone drilling?

Answer
Replace the moving drill tip with a moving heat source in an axisymmetric transient heat-transfer model and track the temperature at the point of interest over time.

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Typical applications
orthopedic drilling tools, surgical drill bits, bone machining processes

Bone heating due to drilling

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Simulation problem

Problem Type
Axisymmetric problem of the Transient heat transfer.

Geometry
Bone fragment is considered as a cylinder with 3 cm radius and 3 cm height. Drilling is performed with 3 mm radius bit.
bone drilling model

Given
Thermal conductivity of bone λ = 0.54 W/K-m)
Density of the bone ρ = 1500 Kg/m³
Specific heat of bone C = 440 J/(Kg·K)
Initial temperature of bone is 37 °C (310 K).
Boundary conditions are simplified as convection with ambient temperature 37°C and convection coefficient 40 W/(K·m²).
Heat is generated at the tip of the drill bit, which has 3 mm length. Volume power of the generated heat is 1e7 W/m³.
Drilling speed is 5 cm/min, drilling time is 20 sec.

Task
Find the transient temperature field in the bone. Calculate the temperature in the point A (6 mm from surface, 3 3m from axis) during 20 sec drilling process

Solution
Moving drill bit may be replaced by a moving heat source in the QuickField block "channel" using following QuickField Data Editor formula:
1e7*impulse(x,0.05/60*t,0.05/60*t+0.003)
Initial conditions are specified by the Static Heat Transfer problem, linked to the Transient Heat Transfer problem.
Boundary conditions for the bone fragment are simplified as convection.

Results
Temperature distribution in the bone.

Temperature plot for point A.
bone drilling heat transfer transient field distribution

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