Numerical and biomechanical testings in cadaveric auditory ossicles using computer axial tomography

In this work, the creation of a model of the human middle ear was carried out, considering as a main purpose the understanding of the biomechanical behavior of the structure of the ear. This pretends to build new knowledge about the degenerative disorders of the ear trying to compare the parameters of a healthy, partial healthy and non healthy person, taking into account the engineering perspective. For this, a two-dimensional image processing was realized, provided by a MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image) of the middle ear of a human cadaver, to turn a model into 3D surface using sevaral design programs used in engineering, such as ScanIP, CopyCAD and PowerSHAPE. In this way, it could be obtained a virtual solid model, which was imported into the ANSYS program. This finite element program was used to carry out a modal analysis to obtain the natural frequencies and vibration modes of the eardrum, which characterize themselves mechanically and acoustically.