An exclusion approach for addressing partial volume artifacts with quantititive computed tomography-based finite element modeling of the proximal tibia.

•Presented a novel “voxel exclusion” method to address partial volume artifacts in QCT-FE models of the proximal tibia.•Evaluated stiffness predictions at the proximal tibial subchondral surface in relation to experimental stiffness measures.•Voxel exclusion offered improved predictions of stiffness with less bias compared to the standard model (+3% in R2, mean bias difference of 209 N/mm).•Voxel exclusion has potential to improve QCT-FE models of bone affected by partial volume artifacts.