Development of a Parametric Finite Element Model of Lower Cervical Spine in Sagital Plane

A parametric 2D finite element model was developed for lower cervical spine (C3-C7) in sagital plane in this research. Being parametric, this model facilitates making changes in the geometrical sizes as well as omitting or modifying some parts of it in order to build a new model with special purposes. Application of geometrical parameters, the values of which differ from one vertebra to the other one due to each one´s morphology, utilizes deriving equations which define geometrical shape of the model of both soft tissue and hard tissue. Then a macro is programmed with Ansys parametric design language (APDL), which runs under FEA software, ANSYS9.0. As the result, a good fit was observed when validated the model with existed experimental results in sagital plane. The comparison shows more reliable results out of this 2D model than cited 3D complex models in flexion and extension