Vibrational and numerical evaluation of human incus mechanical properties

Abstract

The capabilities to apply the FEM in hearing research field are large: the identification of tissues properties, the definition of the behaviour of hearing elements or even it could improve the clinical surgical intervention. Numerous researchers are focused on hearing improvement or understanding problems by working on middle ear or inner ear behaviour. In our work we focused on mechanical properties identification of incus by using micro-CT scanning, performing vibrational analysis and finally the FE simulations. Contrarily to other researchers we supposed incus bone to be non-homogeneous body and accordingly attributed different densities in long and short processes. The non-homogeneity of the long and short processes could be the reason why the incus bone behaviour does not depend simply on degradation level and affected area size. Finally, by inverse FE modelling, the Young Modulus was estimated.