Simulation of propagation characteristics of ultrasonic guided waves in fracture long bone

Using ultrasonic guided wave to assess fracture long bone has gained considerable attention. This paper focuses on using the hybrid boundary element method (HBEM) to analyze ultrasonic guided wave propagation characteristics in fracture long bones. We numerically calculated and analyzed the reflection and transmission coefficients for different depth-to-width ratio (d/w) cracks. The results show that the primary output modes, which include the transmission and reflection modes, are the same as the incidence modes. For some cracks, different transmission coefficient curves always get the local peaks in adjacent frequencies. And for different d/w cracks, most of the transmission coefficient curves have local peaks which are not overlapped. These conclusions could be capable of optimizing the modes and frequencies of the incidence guided waves for quantificationally evaluating the bone quality and providing the numeral results of the cracks in long cortical bones.