Design and Modeling the Prosthetic Foot from Suitable Composite Materials

Abstract

This work concerns developing a composite material, which can be used in manufacturing prosthetic feet with a reasonable cost and satisfying mechanical properties. The characteristics were investigated by mechanical tests of tensile properties and Charpy impact strength. The study of date palm wood and its effects on the mechanical properties of polyethylene have received little attention. It was found that Young’s modulus of forty percent high density polyethylene (HDPE) filled with sixty percent of Date Palm Wood (DPW), significantly increased to eighty percent compared with pure HDPE. Moreover, the yield and ultimate stresses were improved, which was approximately two times higher than that observed for pure HDPE; the elongation at break and impact energy were decreased significantly. The characteristics exhibited by prosthetics compared to those of a human foot were investigated further. The analytical section presents the results of the static analysis by numerical methods (Finite Element method FEM), ANSYS Work bench 14 and experimental methods. Thus, the new foot was designed and the dorsiflexion was measured. Overall, the non .articulation of this type of foot is compared against Solid Ankle Cushion Heel (SACH) foot by cost and weight, so that the cost of the non .articulated foot is lower than that of the other by about sixty percent. We also found the new weight is lighter than that of by about two percent. The new model of prosthetic foot has better characteristics, which includes foot life cycle (7.5° and 1,049,135) respectively when compared with the other (6.4° and 896213) respectively.