Saturday, October 29, 2011
Hall 1-2 (San Jose Convention Center)
The cartilage in the human knee is unable to regenerate after it has been worn down either through years of use as in the aged or excessive activity as in athletes.
A new polymer shoe insole is explored which aims to reduce the force experienced by the knee upon heel strike stepping. The insole will serve to absorb the ground reaction force upon the foot during walking and running by increasing the impact time over which the force is applied.
A finite element model of the posterior inferior portion of the human foot was created using Abaqus software to simulate heel strike stepping and to serve as a design aid in conjunction with experimental results taken from treadmill testing with human subjects. The anatomy of the foot has been greatly simplified in order to reduce the complexity of the computer model and reduce runtime for simulations.
During treadmill testing subjects were asked to run at four different speeds forces were upon the knee were estimated using data form accelerometers affixed to the subjects tibia.
By comparing the forces upon the knee from various configurations of insole thickness and geometry optimal insole configurations are determined. The finite element model of the heel was used to verify the findings and validate the experimental results.
A new polymer shoe insole is explored which aims to reduce the force experienced by the knee upon heel strike stepping. The insole will serve to absorb the ground reaction force upon the foot during walking and running by increasing the impact time over which the force is applied.
A finite element model of the posterior inferior portion of the human foot was created using Abaqus software to simulate heel strike stepping and to serve as a design aid in conjunction with experimental results taken from treadmill testing with human subjects. The anatomy of the foot has been greatly simplified in order to reduce the complexity of the computer model and reduce runtime for simulations.
During treadmill testing subjects were asked to run at four different speeds forces were upon the knee were estimated using data form accelerometers affixed to the subjects tibia.
By comparing the forces upon the knee from various configurations of insole thickness and geometry optimal insole configurations are determined. The finite element model of the heel was used to verify the findings and validate the experimental results.