Saeed Miramini

University of Melbourne | MSD · Department of Infrastructure Engineering

Background and objectives: The healing outcomes of distal radius fracture (DRF) treated with the volar locking plate (VLP) depend on surgical strategies and postoperative rehabilitation. However, the accurate prediction of healing outcomes is challenging due to a range of certainties related to the clinical conditions of DRF patients, including fr...

Over several decades the perception and therefore description of articular cartilage changed substantially. It has transitioned from being described as a relatively inert tissue with limited repair capacity, to a tissue undergoing continuous maintenance and even adaption, through a range of complex regulatory processes. Even from the narrower lens...

Background and objectives: Previous studies have shown that there is potentially interstitial fluid exchange between cartilage tissue and the subarticular spongiosa region in the case of injury or disease (e.g., osteoarthritis and osteoporosis). Interstitial flow is also required for cartilage lubrication under joint load. A key question then is h...

Background and objectives: Early therapeutic exercises are vital for the healing of distal radius fractures (DRFs) treated with the volar locking plate. However, current development of rehabilitation plans using computational simulation is normally time-consuming and requires high computational power. Thus, there is a clear need for developing mac...

Designing weight-bearing exercises for patients with lower-limb bone fractures is challenging and requires a systematic approach that accounts for patient-specific loading conditions. However, 'trial-and-error' approaches are commonplace in clinical settings due to the lack of a fundamental understanding of the effect of weight-bearing exercises on...

Background and objective: Mechanical stability plays an important role in fracture healing process. Excessive interfragmentary movement will continuously damage the tissue and newly formed capillaries at the fracture site, which leads to overproduction of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) that attracts more macrophages into fracture callus, ul...

Background and objectives Cartilage surface roughness has significant implications on joint lubrication. However, the effects of the variability in surface roughness in different directions, especially roughness in horizontal direction, in mixed-mode lubrication have not been fully investigated and relevant research work in this field is limited. T...

Background and objective : Therapeutic exercises could potentially enhance the healing of distal radius fractures (DRFs) treated with volar locking plate (VLP). However, the healing outcomes are highly dependent on the patient-specific fracture geometries (e.g., gap size) and the loading conditions at the fracture site (e.g., loading frequency) res...

Volar locking plate (VLP) has become a promising and standard technique in treating distal radius fracture. However, the interaction between the mechanical stability of VLP and the mechanobiology at the fracture site is still unclear. This study aims to develop computational models in conjunction with experimental studies to identify the favourable...

Infrared thermography (IRT) has been widely used in detecting the subsurface delamination of bridge deck. However, IRT inspection on delamination zones of the bridge deck which have limited exposure to direct solar radiation (e.g., the bottom surface of the bridge deck) is rather challenging due to the relatively low thermal contrast (∆T) developme...

Background and Objective : Inflammatory response plays a crucial role in the early stage of fracture healing. Immediately after fracture, the debris and immune cells (e.g., macrophages), recruited into the fracture callus, lead to the secretion of inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), which governs the mesenchymal ste...

The application of volar locking plate (VLP) is promising in the treatment of dorsally comminuted and displaced fracture. However, the optimal balance between the mechanical stability of VLP and the mechanobiology at the fracture site is still unclear. The purpose of this study is to develop numerical models in conjunction with experimental studies...

The mechanical properties of bridge bearings gradually deteriorate over time resulting from daily traffic loading and harsh environmental conditions. However, structural health monitoring of in-service bridge bearings is rather challenging. This study presents a bridge bearing condition assessment framework which integrates the vibration data from...

The development of effective life cycle management strategies for transport infrastructure assets is of importance for meeting the defined public policies and levels of service. In the last decades, much progress has been made in assessing the life-cycle performance of bridges using reliability-based approaches. However, the goal of developing a co...

It is known that weight-bearing exercises under Ilizarov circular fixators (ICF) could enhance bone fracture healing by mechano-regulation. However, interfragmentary movements at the fracture site induced by weight-bearing may inhibit angiogenesis and ultimately delay the healing process. To tackle this challenge, a computational model is presented...

Bone fracture treatments using Ilizarov circular fixator (ICF) involve dealing with uncertainties about a range of critical factors that control the mechanical microenvironment of the fracture site such as ICF configuration, fracture gap size, physiological loading etc. To date, the effects of the uncertainties about these critical factors on the m...

Background and Objective : The geometrical and mechanical properties that characterise the cartilage contact gap are uncertain and spatially varied. To date the effects of such uncertainties on cartilage lubrication have not been explored. Using a probabilistic approach, the purpose of this study is to numerically investigate the influence of surfi...

Although experimental evidence has suggested that the polymer brush border (PBB) on the cartilage surface is important in regulating fluid permeability in the contact gap, the current theoretical understanding of joint lubrication is still limited. To address this research gap, a multiscale cartilage contact model that includes PBB, in particular i...

Roads are among the most important assets in the world. Road structure improvements make a crucial contribution to economic development and growth and bring important social benefits. Automation in structural health monitoring allow the accurate prediction of ongoing damage caused by long-term traffic loading. This permits optimal road structure ma...

Delamination is one of the serious types of deterioration in reinforced concrete structures. It could cause concrete spalling, exposed steel bars, and ultimately affects the structural integrity of concrete structures. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a non-destructive technique which could potentially detect the delamination by capturing thermal con...

After trauma, fractured bone starts healing directly through bone union or indirectly through callus formation process. Intramembranous and endochondral ossification are two commonly known mechanisms of indirect healing. The present study investigated the bone fracture healing under intramembranous and endochondral ossification by developing theore...

The high porosity of interfacial transition zone (ITZ) could significantly influence the durability of offshore concrete structures. This study aims to investigate the effects of aggregate surface by coating slag and silica fume on the ITZ microstructure, ultimately the corrosion resistance of the cement composite materials exposed to chloride atta...

This study numerically investigates the pathological changes of fluid flow in cartilage contact gap due to the changes in cartilage surface roughness and synovial fluid characteristics in osteoarthritic (OA) condition. First, cartilage surface topographies in both healthy and OA conditions are constructed using a numerical approach with considerati...

This study presents a coupled cartilage contact model, in which the contact gap and cartilage tissue are modelled as two poroelastic systems, linked by pressure and normal flux continuity boundary conditions. Using a tibial plug under indentation as a proof-of-concept model, the predictions support the weeping lubrication theory under static compre...

One of the main advantages of Ilizarov Circular Fixator (ICF) is that it enables early weight bearing, which is beneficial for patients’ mobility. In addition, it is believed that early weight bearing could lead to faster and stronger fracture callus development and thus, enhance healing progression. Therefore, it is important that the early weight...

Delamination is a serious form of deterioration in concrete bridge decks. Infrared thermography (IRT) is an advance non‐destructive testing method for concrete bridge deck delamination detection by capturing the absolute thermal contrast (ΔT) on the concrete surface caused by the disruption in heat flow due to subsurface defects. However, as the am...

This paper presents an integrated framework for structural health monitoring of bridges by using advanced non-destructive testing (NDT) technique in conjunction with computational modelling. First, the structural characteristics of the Eltham Trestle Bridge under train loading were monitored using the combination of the 3D optical measurement syste...

The ability to fabricate complex structures via precise and heterogeneous deposition of biomaterials makes additive manufacturing (AM) a leading technology in the creation of implants and tissue engineered scaffolds. Connective tissues (CTs) remain attractive targets for manufacturing due to their "simple" tissue compositions that, in theory, are r...

In this study, a validated 3D computational model of a fractured tibia stabilized with Ilizarov circular fixator (ICF) has been used to investigate the influence of two different weight transmission modes of ICF (namely, (i) direct loading and (ii) indirect loading) on the early stage cell differentiations within the fracture callus. Furthermore, h...

Weight-bearing exercise is a well-accepted physiotherapy to prevent osteoporosis for stroke patients. But the immobility of stroke patients limits the types and intensity of conventional interventions. Recent advances in robot-assisted therapeutic device provide an innovative way which could potentially overcome the above-mentioned limitations. How...

Synovial fluid flow in articular joint capsule plays an important role during mixed mode lubrication. However, the actual fluid flow behaviour during cartilage contact has not been fully understood so far. This is due to the difficulties in measuring the gap permeability using conventional experimental techniques. The problem becomes further compli...

Early weight bearing appears to enhance bone fracture healing under Ilizarov Circular Fixators (ICFs). However, the role of early weight bearing in the healing process remains unclear. This study aims to provide insight into the effects of early weight bearing on healing of bone fractures stabilized with ICFs, with the aid of mathematical modelling...

The design of patient specific weight-bearing exercises after the surgical implementation of internal fixations is of critical importance for bone fracture healing. The purpose of this study is to theoretically investigate the effects of physiologically relevant dynamic loading on early stage of fracture healing under different locking compression...

[1] This study aims to enhance the understanding of the relationship between Ilizarov fixator configuration and its effects on bone fracture healing. Using Taylor spatial frame (TSF) as an example, the roles of critical parameters (i.e. TSF ring diameter, wire pretension, fracture gap size and axial load) that govern fracture healing during the ear...

Lightweight foam concrete has been developing rapidly in construction industry due to its sustainability, excellent thermal insulation, excellent fire resistance and affordability. It is desired to assess the performance of the foam concrete structure on site instead of testing isolated specimen in laboratory condition, as the changes in site envir...

After fracture, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and growth factors migrate into the fracture callus to exert their biological actions. Previous studies have indicated that dynamic loading induced tissue deformation and interstitial fluid flow could produce a biomechanical environment which significantly affects the healing outcomes. However, the fund...

Scanning concrete structures using ground penetrating radars (GPR) continues to be one of the most efficient methods for defect (i.e. crack, void and delamination) detection within concrete structures as well as detection of reinforcing bars damage due to corrosion. The aim of this study was to assess the structural health of a 45-year old pedestri...

The locking plate fixations have been developed to enhance bone healing by wide bridging of the fracture and allowing some level of interfragmentary movement (IFM) at the fracture site. However, the IFM induced by conventional locking plate constructs is not uniform at the fracture site and so result in asymmetric callus formation, and ultimately d...

With demographic change and increasing life expectancy, osteoporotic fractures have become one of the most prevalent trauma conditions seen in daily clinical practice. A variety of factors are known to affect the rate of healing in osteoporotic conditions (e.g. both biochemical and biomechanical environment of callus cells). However, the influence...

Recently we presented a computational model of articular cartilage calibrated for normal human tissue explants. This model was able to capture the transient deformation of cartilage experiencing a cyclic load. The model takes into account the tension-compression nonlinearity of the cartilage and incorporates the dependency of the compressive stiffn...

A great deal of evidence suggests that partial weight-bearing exercise plays an important role in bone fracture healing. However, current physiotherapy program tends to follow the "Let's try it and see" strategy due to the lack of a fundamental understanding of in vivo mechanical environment required for the better healing outcomes. The purpose of...

The process for assessing the condition of a bridge involves continuously monitoring changes to the material properties, support conditions, and system connectivity throughout its life cycle. It is known that the structural integrity of bridges can be monitored by measuring their vibration responses. However, the relationship between frequency chan...

Mechano-regulation plays a crucial role in bone healing and involves complex cellular events. In this study, we investigate the change of mechanical microenvironment of stem cells within early fracture callus as a result of the change of fracture obliquity, gap size and fixation configuration using mechanical testing in conjunction with computation...

Interfragmentary movement (IFM) at the fracture site plays an important role in fracture healing, particularly during its early stage, via influencing the mechanical microenvironment of mesenchymal stem cells within the fracture callus. However, the effect of changes in IFM resulting from the changes in the configuration of locking plate fixation o...

Background: The main function of articular cartilage is to facilitate joint movement and to protect joint from wear and damage in the hostile mechanical environment of the joints. The unique properties of cartilage extracellular matrix and its interaction with interstitial fluid are responsible for the complex mechanical behavior of cartilage. Met...

Osteoporosis is highly prevalent and a costly disease predicted to affect 1,555 million worldwide by 2050, and the total cost of osteoporotic fractures worldwide could reach US$131 billion by 2025. These statistics clearly affirm the significant economic burden of osteoporotic fractures to the community, and the need for the development of improved...

Recent imaging has revealed that in vivo contact deformations of human knee cartilage under physiological loadings are surprisingly large-typically on the order of 10%, but up to 20 or 30% of tibiofemora cartilage thickness depending on loading conditions. In this paper we develop a biphasic, large deformation, non-linear poroelastic model of carti...

It is widely accepted that bone healing is influenced by biomechanical microenvironment of the fracture site. However achieving an optimal biomechanical microenvironment is challenging in clinical practice and depends on numerous factors such as fracture fixation, fracture geometry and loading. Application of locking compression plates (LCP) for fr...

It is well known that bone healing outcomes highly depend on the mechanical microenvironment of the fracture site, and a certain degree of interfragmentary movement (IFM) is essential for indirect (i.e. natural) bone healing. The application of locking compression plate (LCP) internal fixation in the treatment of bone fracture is a common practice...

Flexible fixation or the so-called 'biological fixation' has been shown to encourage the formation of fracture callus, leading to better healing outcomes. However, the nature of the relationship between the degree of mechanical stability provided by a flexible fixation and the optimal healing outcomes has not been fully understood. In this study, w...

Tissue engineering scaffolds are special 3D structures that are used for cell proliferation, migration and differentiation and finally formation of the extra-cellular matrix and target tissue. Performance of various functions of these structures depends on morphological, biological and mechanical properties of tissue scaffolds. Biological and mecha...