Open Access

Oliver Sander, Corinna Klapproth, Jonathan Youett, Ralf Kornhuber, Peter Deuflhard

• We present a time-dependent finite element model of the human knee joint of full 3D geometric complexity. Its efficient numerical simulation requires advanced numerical algorithms that have been developed just recently. Up to now, the model comprises bones, cartilage, and the major ligaments (patella and menisci are still missing). Bones (femur, tibia, and fibula) are modelled by linear elastic materials, cartilage by viscoelastic materials, ligaments by one-dimensional so-called Cosserat rods. In order to capture the dynamical contact problems correctly, we solve the full PDEs of elasticity in the presence of strict contact inequalities. For the total spatio-temporal discretization we apply a method of layers approach (first time, then space discretization). For the time discretization of the elastic and viscoelastic parts, we apply a new contact-stabilized Newmark method, while for the Cosserat rods we choose an energy-momentum method. For the space discretization, we use linear finite elements for the elastic and viscoelastic parts and novel geodesic finite elements for the Cosserat rods. The coupled system is solved by a Dirichlet-Neumann method, and the arising large algebraic systems are solved by a recent fast multigrid solver, the truncated non-smooth Newton multigrid method.