Compression Modeling of Biomedical Polyurethanes

M. MACHADO; P- FRONTINI

Rosario

Congreso; ENIEF 2011. XIX Congreso sobre Métodos Numéricos y sus Aplicaciones; 2011

Lower back pain is one of the most common medical problems, and in the 80% of cases it is associated to lumbar disc degeneration [1]. Nucleus replacement appears as a good alternative to current surgical procedures since they are less invasive and can restore normal biomechanics. The central core, the nucleus pulposus, is surrounded by the outer annulus fibrosus and the upper and lower cartilaginous end plates [3]. When a compressive force is applied on disc, the nucleus transfers load to the anulus through the creation of an intradiscal pressure [4]. In present work, compressive mechanical behavior of specially designed polyurethane elastomeric foams was studied.