THE ROLE OF DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS IN FINITE ELEMENT RESULTS:

THE CINGULATA JAW AS CASE OF STUDY

Jordi Marc-Nogu1,2, Christian Escrig1, Soledad De Esteban-Trivigno2,3 and Josep Fortuny2,1
UNIVERSITAT POLITCNICA DE CATALUNYA1 / INSTITUT CATAL DE PALEONTOLOGIA2 / TRANSMITTING SCIENCE3

CASE OF STUDY

OBJECTIVES
Because the elements of Finite Element
Analysis (FEA) models differ in size, it is not
correct to obtain traditional descriptive
statistics such as Arithmetic Mean or Median
from the raw Von Mises Stress values of the
elements.
Our aim in this work was to develop new
quantitative statistics to compare different
models in a comprehensive fashion,
correcting by the differences in size of the
elements of the mesh.

Species
Cabassous unicinctus
Chaetophractus villosus
Chlamyphorus truncatus
Chaetophractus vellerosus
Dasypus kappleri
Dasypus novemcinctus
Dasypus sabanicola
Euphractus sexcinctus
Eutatus seguini
Macroeuphractus outesi
Priodontes maximus
Tolypeutes matacus
Vassalia maxima
Zaedyus pichiy

Dietary Category
Specialist insectivore
Omnivore / Carnivore
Generalist insectivore
Omnivore / Carnivore
Generalist insectivore
Generalist insectivore
Generalist insectivore
Omnivore / Carnivore
Herbivore
Omnivore / Carnivore
Specialist insectivore
Generalist Insectivore
Herbivore
Omnivore / Carnivore

Table 1. Cingulata species used in the working example

FEA data from 14 Cingulata (Xenarthra) species (Table 1) were obtained in a previous
work (Serrano-Fochs. et al, in revision) using ANSYS FEA Package v.14.5 for Windows 7
(64-bit system), modeling the mandibles as planar models. Isotropic and linear elastic
properties of Macaca rhesus were assumed for the bone: E=21.000 MPa and v=0,45
(Dechow & Hylander, 2000).
These species have different diets, therefore we expect a different biomechanical
performance (under equivalent loads) in the lower jaw related to each diet, with
insectivores having higher stress values than omnivores or herbivores.
The methodology defined in this work
(see below) was used with these data as
a working example of the applicability
of the new approach proposed here.

Using plane elasticity theory, the

relationship between the forces applied in
the reference model and the scaled model
were obtained from the relationships of
the quasi-homothetic transformations.

(Marc-Nogu et al, 2013)

(Serrano et al, in revision)

NEW QUANTITATIVE APPROACH

Mesh-Weighted Arithmetic Mean of Stress (MWAM) and Mesh-Weighted Median of
Stress (MWM): In function of the area of each element of the mesh.

=0

=0

=
100

Mesh-Weighted Box-plots of Stress: In order to analyze FE results statistically, all the

values of the mandible have to be equivalent (e.g. have the same weight).

UNIFORMITY CONVERGENCE

=
100

SIZE CONVERGENCE

Mesh-Weighted Arithmetic Mean Error (MWAME) and Mesh-Weighted Median Error

(MWME): evaluating the error between the non-weighted value and the weighted value of
mean and median (AM: Arithmetic mean / M: Median). If the error is lower than certain
threshold, the mesh can be considered as a statistical (uniform and homogeneous) ideal
mesh for analyzing the data distribution (e.g. box-plots).

The proposed statistics converge when

the mesh is fine (a,c) and the elements
have uniform size (b,d). The MWAME
and MWME can be used to evaluate
when a mesh is adequate to analyze the
distribution of the stress values.

WORKING EXAMPLE

CONCLUSIONS
Mesh-Weighted Arithmetic Mean and Mesh-Weighted Median
Error, as well as checking for the suitability of the mesh when
analyzing distributions, are adequate to compare stress results
from different specimens.
The statistics proposed here have shown to be extremely useful
when developing a functional comparative analysis, supporting the
qualitative interpretations drawn from the Von Mises stress maps.

Von Mises Stress values from Serrano-Fochs et al. (in revision). MWAM, MWM and box-plots (after checking the
mesh) give a clear and general overview of the results from the Von Mises stress values for each mandible. From
these graphics it is clear that insectivores have a much large dispersion of the results and higher MWAM and
MWM values than herbivores and omnivores/carnivores, with the only exception of Chlamyphorus truncatus,
which extreme style of life (burrower) might affect the shape of the lower jaw interacting with the functional
adaptations to feed on insects.

Dechow, P.C. & Hylander, W.L., 2000. Elastic properties and masticatory bone
stress in the macaque mandible. American journal of physical anthropology,
112, pp.553574.
Marc-Nogu, J., DeMiguel, D., De Esteban-Trivigno, S., Fortuny, J. and Gil, L.
2013. Quasi-homothetic transformation for comparing the mechanical
performance of planar models in biological research. Palaeontologia
Electronica 16.
Serrano et al. In revision. Finite Element Analysis of the Cingulata jaw: an
ecomorphological approach to armadillos diet.