Development of Surrogate Models of Orthopedic Screws to Improve Biomechanical Performance
An optimization approach was applied to improve the design of the lag screws used in double screw nails. However, finite element analyses with an optimal algorithm may take a long time to find the best design. Thus, surrogate methods, either artificial neural networks or multiple linear regressions, were used to substitute for the finite element models. The results showed that an artificial neural network method can accurately develop the objective functions of the lag screws for both the bending strength and the pullout strength. A multiple linear regression method can successfully develop the objective function of the lag screws for the pullout strength, but it failed to construct the objective function for the bending strength. The optimal design of the lag screws could be obtained using the artificial neural network method and genetic algorithms.