To:

Dr. Pierrakos
From: Mackenzie Peterson
Subject: Design Challenge 3
Date: 10/20/14

Introduction and Methodology

This memo outlines the research and process performed to come to a final conclusion
about the most ideal design to fuse two vertebral bodies in a human spine. This plate will
be used to keep the vertebrae of patients with diseases or broken bones, steady and in
place. The constraints and requirements for this design are; the plate length needs to be
around four centimeters, a deflection less than 0.1% of the plate length, width should be
around one and a half centimeters, and the material is a titanium alloy. The first
assumption made for the spinal plate is that the plate will be attached at either end to two
vertebral bones and the load on the plate will be distributed equally across the plate. The
deflection equation to be used in this problem is located below in Equation 1.

5
!
384
=

W = total load on plate, l = length of plate, E = modulus of elasticity, I = moment of inertia

Equation 1: Beam Deflection

The equation calculates the maximum plate (beam) deflection, which will keep the
deflection under 0.1% of the length of the plate. The second assumption is that the load on
the plate will be between 45 and 90N, based on a scientific report of a cervical spine locking
plate on Synthes.com1. Before the equation can be tested though, the exact material of the
plate needs to be determined because there are different types of titanium alloys. The two
most common titanium alloys used in medicine are 6AL4V and 6AL4V-ELI as described on
SAL Titanium Specialists2. According to the AZO materials website3 the titanium alloy
6AL4V is also one of the strongest alloys. Based on these two sources, the Ti-6AL4V alloy is
the material chosen for this project. The modulus of elasticity for this alloy is 107 GPa or
16.5 * 103 ksi. The equation used to calculate the moment of inertia can be found in
Equation 2 below.
!
=

12
w = width and h = height

Equation 2: Moment of Inertia

Using these equations and research, the analysis can begin to be performed both on paper
and in solid works to determine initial dimensions and then to test and see if they will fulfill
the requirements for the design.

Analysis

An initial sketch of the spinal plate is Figure 1 below. The equations and numbers
researched in the previous section were used to find an initial height of the plate.

Figure 1: Hand-drawn sketch

These dimensions are then plugged into solid works and analyzed to see if this will truly
result in a deflection less then 0.1% of the plate length. If l = 4 cm = 1.575 in and w = 1.5 cm
= 0.591 in. Using Equation 2, I = 0.0172(h) [in4] and the modulus of elasticity is 16.5*106
psi and converting the load force to pounds W = 20.232 lbf.
5
!
384
=

20.323 1.575 !
0.001575 = 0.013

16500000 ! 0.0172 !

= 0.23094

Using Equation 1 and plugging in y = 0.001575 in (0.1% of the length) then the resulting
height would be 0.23094 in based on the analytical analysis shown above.


Next, the dimensions are plugged into solid works and analyzed to see if it would work in a
real-life modeling situation. The results from this test can be found in the following
section.

Results

The design was drawn into solid works, the material applied and then a stress test was
performed on the plate. The image in Figure 2 below is the results of applying force to the
center of the beam where most force will be placed when it is attached to the spine.

Figure 2: Solid Works Analysis

The mini table on the right shows the amount of deflection that occurred at the locations on
the plate. The largest deflection of the plate was in the center, red area, and this was
7.905*10-6 mm, which equals 3.112*10-7 and is extremely smaller than the required
deflection for the plate.

Recommendations and Conclusion

This analysis seemed to go correctly, however, looking back on the solid works application,
the location of the applied force might not be 100% correct because the plate would be
attached to the spine vertically so the forces might be applied in this direction instead of on
the center of the plate. Although, if the force application is correct then the dimensions and
calculations for this design are correct and the plate could be used to fuse two sine
vertebrae together. This challenge was insightful by applying mechanics to something that
would be used in a human body by using a few equations and a solid works modeling
program.

Works Cited

1. http://www.synthes.com/MediaBin/US%20DATA/Product%20Support%20Materi
als/Brochures/SPBROCSLPJ3172C.pdf
2. http://www.supraalloys.com/medical-titanium.php
3. http://www.azom.com/article.aspx?articleid=1341#_Strength