Engineering Mechanics
University of Nebraska
212 Bancroft Hall
Lincoln, NE 68588-0347
ypao@unlinfo.unl.edu

This project makes use of the computer-tomographically (CT) images of bone recorded at microscopic scale of approximately equal to 0.02 mm provided by the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota to demonstrate to the engineering and applied science students the basic concept of "biomechanics." For example, the tibia in the lower leg of a rat takes a volume of size 200×250×600 pixels (i.e., 200 in x-, 250 in y-, and 600 in z-directions, respectively) to capture the bone architecture with 1 and 0 binary bits. The actual size of tibia is about 12 mm long and with a largest cross-sectional area of 4 mm by 5 mm.

To introduce the mechanics for such a biological material, a QuickBASIC program BioDemo2 has been developed which allows students to interactively select all or a part of the 30,000,000 bits of 1's (bone) and 0's (holes). The distribution of these 1's and 0's makes it possible to compute how porous the bone is and where the cross-sectional centroid is and also the moments of inertia. Having the source codes available to the students in the low-end language QuickBASIC help them understand each step involved in handling the binary bits 0 and 1. The easy use of the command PSET (x,y),[color] for assigning different colors for different locations of 1's in visual display of a selected bone subregion is also a plus to this instructional aid.

Personally, continual development of Computer-Aided-Engineering (CAE) instructional demonstration package CAEdemo since 1980 has been a very rewarding experience. It has resulted in publication of textbooks [3,7,17,18] and recognitions. Please visit the WEB site http://www.unl.edu/emhome/faculty/pao.html for more information. Most satisfying is when a student comes into office and says that he/she is hired by a well known company, to which he/she has been invited for a site visit and made an impressive presentation based on some of his/her computer programs derived from learning this demonstration package CAEdemo. BioDemo2 is to become a component of CAEdemo. Not only it should help the students learn the basic concept of biomechanics but also motivate them to develop their own versions of computational and display programs.

References:

1. Y. C. Pao, Elements of Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing, CAD/CAM, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1984.
2. Y. C. Pao, A First Course in Finite Element Analysis, Allyn & Bacon, Boston, 1986.
3. Y. C. Pao and L. Davis Clements, "Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing, CAD/CAM," in Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, John Wiley, New York, 1993, pp.109-127.
4. Y. C. Pao and M. Foltz, Engineering Drafting and Solid Modeling with SliverScreen, CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, 1993.