Validation of a heterogeneous elastic-biphasic model for the numerical simulation of the PDL.

An elastic-biphasic model for the simulation of the periodontal ligament (PDL) and the adjacent tooth is presented and investigated. The PDL is modelled as a biphasic material following the work of Ehlers and Markert (2001 ), whereas the tooth is modelled as a linear elastic body. A spatial discretisation scheme is proposed based on mixed finite elements for the spatial discretisation. Due to nonlinearity in the model, a predictor-corrector scheme is employed as a temporal discretisation scheme. In order to validate the PDL model, in vitro measurements are compared with numerical simulations. The numerical simulations are performed using geometries resulting from micro-CT scanner of the same porcine tooth, which was employed for the in vitro measurements.