Experiment and hydro-mechanical coupling simulation study on the human periodontal ligament.

In this paper, a new method involving an experiment in vivo and hydro-mechanical coupling simulations was proposed to investigate the biomechanical property of human periodontal ligament (PDL). Teeth were loaded and their displacements were measured in vivo. The finite element model of the experiment was built and hydro-mechanical coupling simulations were conducted to test some PDL's constitutive models. In the simulations, the linear elastic model, the hyperfoam model, and the Ogden model were assumed for the solid phase of the PDL coupled with a model of the fluid phase of the PDL. The displacements of the teeth derived from the simulations were compared with the experimental data to validate these constitutive models. The study shows that a proposed constitutive model of the PDL can be reliably tested by this method. Furthermore, the influence of species, areas, and the fluid volume ratio on PDL's mechanical property should be considered in the modeling and simulation of the mechanical property of the PDL.