High-Speed Cutting of Synthetic Trabecular Bone—A Combined Experimental–Computational Investigation

Orthopaedic surgical cutting instruments are required to generate sufficient forces to penetrate bone tissue while minimising the risk of thermal and mechanical damage to the surrounding environment. This study presents a combined experimental–computational approach to determine relationships between key cutting parameters and overall cutting performance of a polyurethane-based synthetic trabecular bone analogue under orthogonal cutting conditions. An experimental model of orthogonal cutting was developed, whereby an adaptable cutting tool fixture driven by a servo-hydraulic uniaxial test machine was used to carry out cutting tests on Sawbone® trabecular bone analogues. A computational model of the orthogonal cutting process was developed using Abaqus/Explicit, whereby an Isotropic Hardening Crushable Foam elastic-plastic model was used to capture the complex post-yield behaviour of the synthetic trabecular bone. It was found that lower tool rake angles resulted in the formation of larger discontinuous chips and higher cutting forces, while higher rake angles tended to lead to more continuous chip formation and lower cutting forces. The computational modelling framework provided captured features of both chip formation and axial cutting forces over a wide range of cutting parameters when compared with experimental observations. This experimentally based computational modelling framework for orthogonal cutting of trabecular bone analogues has the potential to be applied to more complex three-dimensional cutting processes in the future.