Meistaravörn við verkfræðideild: Margrét Sól Ragnarsdóttir
MSc í heilbrigðisverkfræði
Þriðjudaginn 2.júní kl 11:00 mun Margrét Sól Ragnarsdóttir verja 60 ECTS verkefni sitt til meistaragráði í heilbrigðisverkfræði "The Design and Development of a Pediatric Prosthetic Foot Using Finite Element Analysis with Focus on Composite Material".
Candidate :Margrét Sól Ragnarsdóttir master student in Biomedical engineering
Supervisor: Paolo Gargiulo, Supervisor Professor, Reykjavík University
Co supervisor: Yonatan Afework Tesfahunegn, Assistant Professor, Reykjavík University
Examiner: Sigurður Brynjólfsson, Professor, University of Iceland,
Abstract
Children with lower extremity amputations often experience movement barriers in life due to the fact that their prosthesis is not able to keep up with their active and playful lifestyle. The current selection of pediatric prosthetic feet (PPF) is not sufficient as the focus of companies has been on adult prostheses. One of the main problems for companies and manufacturers is that the market for pediatric devices is relatively small with considerably less turnover than for adult products. This causes a problem since the development cost for a pediatric device is the same as for a device intended for the adult population. In this thesis, a new PPF is created using methodology intended to decrease the time and cost of the development process. Physical testing was performed on a currently existing PPF from Össur hf, the FlexFoot Junior (FFJ), where the force and displacement at failure was recorded. A computer model of the foot was created with the composite material layup defined and finite element analysis (FEA) was performed in the same testing setup as applied on the physical samples. The stress in the composite material was recorded at the same load at which the physical samples failed. Then, a model of a new PPF design was created, composite material defined and FEA performed. The design was edited based on the weaknesses of the previous design. This process of performing FEA and editing the design was iterated until the new design showed desirable qualities. The final design showed more flexibility than the FFJ, while reducing the compression stress at which the device fails by around 800 MPa and showing similar tension stress which maintains strength during loading. The methodology introduced in this thesis demonstrates that FEA and optimization processes can significantly improve new prosthesis prototyping as well as reduce overall cost for developing new products.
