Problems related to mechanics in the design of external osteosynthesis

The external osteosynthesis is one of the methods of healing bone fractures. The idea of external fixators design consists in inserting into the bone fragments elements, which are coupled outside the limb by an element, called the frame of the fixator, having the fracture set. The external fixation is based on the principle of "load transfer". The design of a new generation of external fixators ought to employ some methods of mechanical analysis. Selected problems related to the modelling and simulation of physical performance of the unilateral external mechatronic orthopaedic fixator-bone system are presented. The majority of works makes use of the rigid finite element method for analysing the orthopaedic device-bone system. The paper presents some problems regarding mechanics applied in the external osteosynthesis design.