Accounting for differences in element size and homogeneity when comparing finite element models : armadillos as a case study
Marcé Nogué, Jordi (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya)
De Esteban-Trivigno, Soledad (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)
Escrig, Christian (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya)
Gil, Lluís (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya)

Date:	2016
Abstract:	Computing the average Von Mises stress of Finite Element Models to obtain a single measurement that represents the relative strength of vertebrate structures has been used recently in different works in palaeobiology. However, due to the nature of the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) data, which depends on the size of the elements of the mesh, this approach needs to be fully developed taking into account this influence of the size elements in the results. In this work, we proposed a Mesh-Weighted Arithmetic Mean as the adequate central tendency statistic for non-uniform meshes. On the other hand, when other statistical tools are used, we propose a Quasi-Ideal Mesh that takes into account the differences in size of the elements. Firstly, in order to analyse our proposed approach, one Cingulata mandible has been used generating different meshes. Afterwards, FEA has been applied in a case study in 20 different mandibles belonging to 14 species of Cingulata. Our results suggest that the proposed methodologies are suitable to compare different patterns of stress distribution. In particular, the methods proposed have been shown to be extremely useful when analysing the biomechanics of vertebrate bone structures that can be modelled as planar models in an interspecific comparative framework.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials i que es distribueixin sota la mateixa llicència que regula l'obra original. Cal que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Finite element analysis ; Mandible mechanics ; Biomechanics ; Diet ; Armadillos ; Functional analysis
Published in:	Palaeontologia electronica, Vol. 19, issue 2 (2016) , ISSN 1094-8074

DOI: 10.26879/609

22 p, 3.0 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles