Medical Implant Mechanics LLC      

A stent is a metal mesh that is implanted into a patient to prop open an artery during angioplasty.  Most stents are very small in dimensions and use nonlinear material properties.  As such, its mechanical performance (typical evaluated from the stress/strain field status) is difficult to evaluate using traditional testing equipment and methods.  Most importantly, for small structures, tests cannot provide detailed and high fidelity resolution solutions of the stress/strain state of the stent in service.  Therefore, there has been an increasing demand for structural analysis, i.e., Finite Element Analysis (FEA) in stent’s design and durability assessment to either improve its mechanical performance or ensure the mechanical integrity.  This webinar reviews the most fundamental finite element analysis in stent applications.  It addresses the selection and use of material model and finite element type, mesh convergence study, boundary condition and typical analysis techniques such as the use of user-defined rigid surfaces.  Examples of both balloon expandable and self expandable stents are used to illustrate the details of the analyses.

What you will learn:
1. How FEA can help in stent design.
2. Typical steps in a stent FEA.
3. Common mistakes in stent FEA.
4. Check list for FEA best practices.

Who should attend:
1. FEA analysts
2. Design and R&D engineers
3. Project managers
4. Regulatory affairs technical specialists

Time: 10 am PST/1 pm EST for 1.5 hours
        

The Instructors

Xiao-Yan Gong, Ph.D.

Xiao-Yan Gong received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Properties of Materials from the University of California at Santa Barbara.  Dr. Gong is currently President of Medical Implant Mechanics LLC, addressing the increasing demand for mechanical analysis in the medical device and implant industry.  He served as the group leader on “Fatigue to Fracture and Beyond” for ASTM F04.30.06 Task Group on Medical and Surgical Materials and Devices, Cardiovascular Standards Subcommittee.  Dr. Gong has more than 22 years experience in Finite Element Analysis on both structural and fluid dynamics.  He started working in medical device and implant industry in June 1998 as a Senior Design Analyst for Carbomedics Inc., a prosthesis heart valve manufacturer in Austin, Texas.  Where he worked closely design engineers and from them he recognized the value of numerical analysis in the early stages of product design and made the nonlinear finite element analysis in heart valve design a routine practice in the company.  Prior to establishing Medical Implant Mechanics, Dr. Gong is a Principal Engineer for Nitinol Devices and Components, a Johnson and Johnson Company.  Where he focused on nonlinear Finite Element Analysis on Nitinol, established peripheral stent durability program and conducted Nitinol fatigue research.

Nuno Rebelo, Ph.D.

Nuno Rebelo received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1980.  For most of his professional life he has been involved in both the software development and in the industrial application of finite element methods.  In the period 1984-2001 he was a member of the development staff of the Marc and the Abaqus general purpose finite element codes. In 1989 he opened and has been the General Manager of what is today the Western Region office of SIMULIA. 

For more than 10 years he has been involved with FE analysis of medical devices and he wrote the Nitinol material model available in Abaqus.