Numerical Optimum Design of a Prosthetic Shank Made of Different Composite Materials and Cross- Sections Areas for an AK Amputee
Author(s):
Ali Noori Kareem*, Majid Habeeb Faidh-Allah
Affiliation(s):
Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Baghdad, Iraq
Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Lower limb amputations are most frequently the result of accidents or limb illness. The primary role of the socket, Shank, and prosthetic foot is to give a means of replacing skeletal function, missing structure, and muscles of the ankle, pylon, and foot. Due to its small weight, the traditional prosthetic Shank is made of titanium-aluminum alloy. The Shank is constructed and analyzed in this work using the ANSYS software. The new Shank has been built from a variety of materials (λ1, λ2, λ3, λ4 and λ5). Compared to materials utilized in the fabrication of lower prosthetics, these materials are characterized by their lightweight and inexpensive cost. Along with modifying the materials, it was investigated to alter the shape of the Shank’s internal cross-section and replace the original (circular) design with two others (ellipse, hexagonal). When numerical tests were conducted using the ANSYS 2020 R2 software, it was discovered that while the ellipse section improved the Shank’s properties (stress, deformation, and safety factor), the hexagonal shape resulted in a significant decrease the safety factor and an increase in the generated stresses. Through testing, it was determined that the ideal shank design in terms of internal section form and material composition (ellipse and λ4 ) was discovered, and this is what we recommend.