Supercomputer HPC: Applications

Clinically available techniques in evaluating the degree of fracture healing of long bones are radiographic techniques and biomechanical testing. Methods of stability assessment and monitoring for osseointegrated implants are similar. An osseointegration prosthesis can improve mobility and quality of life for an amputee compared to the socket prosthesis. Many factors influence the formation of the bone at the implant surface, which should be monitored: X-ray and MRI can be used but the implant can cause aberrations, hampering the application of these techniques. Also, the high radiation dosage limits regular X-ray computed tomography scan usage for healing assessment, and clinical application of biomechanical testing methods such as measuring the deflection of the healing bone under a specific loading is limited. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the development of a harmless and reliable healing evaluation method. Another urgent problem is the diagnosis of osteoporosis, which is a prevalent bone disease. The disease is typically symptomless until the first adverse effects, such as low impact fractures. Bone density change influences ultrasound waves and can be an indicator of the disease the effects of the callus properties and geometry on the dispersion characteristics of guided waves (GW) modes were investigated. Nevertheless, there is a vast knowledge gap and the conducted research is very scarce. The GW method also has significant potential to assess implant stability. The dispersion characteristics can be obtained by using the axial transmission method in which propagation of GW is assessed along the axis of long bones. However, most of the ultrasonic heads available on the market are resonant frequency based, over a narrow bandwidth, so that the usability of dispersion curves is limited and focused usually on single GW modes.