Journal of Bionic Engineering

May 2019, Volume 16, Issue 3, pp 514–525| Cite as

Daniela TarnitaEmail authorDoina PislaEmail authorIonut GeoneaCalin VaidaMarius CatanaDanut Nicolae Tarnita

1.Faculty of MechanicsUniversity of CraiovaCraiovaRomania

2.CESTER - Research Centre for the Robot Simulation and TestingTechnical University Cluj NapocaCluj-NapocaRomania

3.INASCraiovaRomania

4.University of Medicine and Pharmacy Craiova & Emergency Hospital CraiovaCraiovaRomania

Abstract

The first objective of this paper is to study the influence of the orthotic device on the maximum values of stresses in knee cartilages by using Ansys Workbench 14.5 software and applying the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) on a virtual assembly composed by an orthotic device and osteoarthritic knee (OAK). The second objective consists into quantifying and investigating the nonlinear motion of the human knee joint for OAK patients, with and without the orthotic device mounted on OAK, using tools of dynamics stability analysis. The short Lyapunov Exponents (LEs) are calculated, as measures of human knee and ankle joints stability, based on the experimental time series collected by using the biometrics acquisition system during walking on horizontal and inclined treadmills from a sample of healthy subjects and a sample of patients suffering by OAK disease. The values of LEs obtained for OAK patients are larger on the inclined treadmill than on horizontal treadmill and are larger than those obtained for healthy knees, being associated with more divergence and less stability. The results confirm that the influence of an orthotic device mounted on OAK on its stability is significant, the values obtained for LEs being smaller than those calculated for OAK, and closer to the values of normal knees of patients and of healthy subjects.

Keywords

osteoarthritic knee bioinspired orthosis finite element method gait stability Lyapunov exponents 

Full text is available at :

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42235-019-0042-3