Finite element analysis of eyeball with its microstructure by use of homogenization method

An effective simulation of the eyeball containing microstructures which are optic nerves and lamina cribrosa, through homogenization method, was studied. Entire domain of the eyeball is divided into a fine-scale zone and a coarse-scale zone to reduce the number of degrees of freedom accompanied by modeling the microstructures. In the coarse-scale zone, homogenized material properties of the lamina cribrosa combined with the optic nerves are employed to compute overall behavior, while the optic nerves are directly modeled to obtain their local behavior in the fine-scale zone. Numerical tests with models having different size of the fine-scale zone showed that this homogenization scheme did not severely deteriorate solution accuracy and makes it possible to reflect the microstructures with reduced computational cost. Then, this multiscale method was employed to confirm a clinical result that a greater susceptibility to development of glaucoma corresponds to a larger curvature of the lamina cribrosa.