A review on recent advances in numerical modelling of bone cutting

• Main contributions in modelling (mostly based on finite element) of bone cutting are reviewed.
• Special attention to the bone behaviour was paid.
• The contributions are grouped by processes: orthogonal cutting, drilling, milling, grinding and indentation.
• Most works focus on cortical bone, trabecular bone cutting has been poorly analysed.

Common practice of surgical treatments in orthopaedics and traumatology involves cutting processes of bone. These operations introduce risk of thermo-mechanical damage, since the threshold of critical temperature producing thermal osteonecrosis is very low. Therefore, it is important to develop predictive tools capable of simulating accurately the increase of temperature during bone cutting, being the modelling of these processes still a challenge. In addition, the prediction of cutting forces and mechanical damage is also important during machining operations. As the accuracy of simulations depends greatly on the proper choice of the thermo-mechanical properties, an essential part of the numerical model is the constitutive behaviour of the bone tissue, which is considered in different ways in the literature. This paper focuses on the review of the main contributions in modelling of bone cutting with special attention to the bone mechanical behaviour. The aim is to give the reader a complete vision of the approaches commonly presented in the literature in order to help in the development of accurate models for bone cutting.