Numerical and experimental investigation of the structural behavior of a carbon fiber reinforced ankle-foot orthosis

Medical Engineering & Physics
Bertram StierStefanie Reese

Abstract

Ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) are designed to enhance the gait function of individuals with motor impairments. Recent AFOs are often made of laminated composites due to their high stiffness and low density. Since the performance of AFO is primarily influenced by their structural stiffness, the investigation of the mechanical response is very important for the design. The aim of this paper is to present a three dimensional multi-scale structural analysis methodology to speed up the design process of AFO. The multi-scale modeling procedure was applied such that the intrinsic micro-structure of the fiber reinforced laminates could be taken into account. In particular, representative volume elements were used on the micro-scale, where fiber and matrix were treated separately, and on the textile scale of the woven structure. For the validation of this methodology, experimental data were generated using digital image correlation (DIC) measurements. Finally, the structural behavior of the whole AFO was predicted numerically for a specific loading scenario and compared with experimental results. It was shown that the proposed numerical multi-scale scheme is well suited for the prediction of the structural behavior of AFOs, validated by th...Continue Reading

References

Jun 23, 2007·Medical Engineering & Physics·Jason Tak-Man Cheung, Ming Zhang
Jun 13, 2009·Gait & Posture·D J J BregmanJ Harlaar
May 5, 2010·Medical Engineering & Physics·Hung-Jen LaiCheng-Kung Cheng
Oct 19, 2010·Medical Engineering & Physics·Habiba BougheraraEmil H Schemitsch

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Citations

Apr 21, 2016·Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part H, Journal of Engineering in Medicine·Paola Serena GinestraAntonio Fiorentino
Feb 1, 2019·Prosthetics and Orthotics International·Alessio IelapiMatthieu De Beule
Apr 9, 2019·Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering·Alessio IelapiMatthieu De Beule
Apr 9, 2020·Polymers·Sarah David MüzelErick Siqueira Guidi
Jul 30, 2019·Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials·Farah Syazwani ShaharPraveena Nair Sivasankaran
Sep 18, 2018·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Jianming ChenJianping Han

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