Modeling has historically played a smaller role in the natural sciences than in more traditional engineering fields such as automotive and aerospace. This is because the life sciences industry is often driven by innovators—a small group of inventors who create products that are then sold by large companies. In addition, modeling human systems and their interactions is much more complex and less studied than modeling metal components. The reaction of human tissue is a complex phenomenon, and it is not easy to simulate it using simplified models. Modeling materials for medical devices (such as composite implants) is also very difficult. Finally, it is sometimes not easy to understand what loads are applied to both tissues and devices. The SIMULIA product suite contains a range of materials, procedures, and load types for modeling the human body, medical and surgical equipment, and how it is used. Abaqus is used to model implantable devices (stents, heart valve prostheses, dental implants), orthopedic devices (artificial knee and hip joints), research on brain damage resulting from head trauma, tissue modeling, lower limb mechanics, and portable blood pressure measurement devices, among other applications. Abaqus calculation results are used in PMA and 510-K submissions requested by the US Food and Drug Administration and similar submissions for European CE marking. In addition, SIMULIA is widely used for medical device simulation in our consulting services at various facilities.
