Iranian Journal of Biomedical Engineering (IJBME)
نوع مقاله : مقاله کامل پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 کارشناسی ارشد، دانشکدهی مهندسی مکانیک، دانشگاه صنعتی شاهرود، شاهرود، ایران
2 دانشیار، دانشکدهی مهندسی مکانیک، دانشگاه صنعتی شاهرود، شاهرود، ایران
کلیدواژهها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
The lack of alignment between the performance of a knee brace and the kinematics of the knee joint can lead to damage and pain in the knee of individuals suffering from arthritis. More compatibility between the knee joint and the brace leads to more effectiveness of these devices. Human knee movement is a combination of rolling and sliding, while most commercial braces use rotational or hinge mechanisms that cannot fully mimic the movement of the human knee. To address this limitation and reduce the incongruence in commercial braces, this paper aims to design a novel supplementary knee brace mechanism based on the biomechanical features of the knee for replacement in commercial braces. Initially, the knee joint’s kinematics is thoroughly studied, and the femur bone’s performance from full extension to full flexion is simulated. Then, using this simulation, the intersection points of the anterior and posterior femoral bone axes during the knee flexion were identified on the sagittal plane where the knee brace joint is positioned. Therefore, the two new curves of the femur bone path are much more related to the kinematics of the knee than the other obtained paths. Based on these two path curves, the supplementary knee joint was designed as a type-3 six-link Stephenson mechanism to achieve a sufficient and necessary alignment with knee joint kinematics. For optimization of the geometry of the mechanism, the PSO algorithm has been used. The designed brace kinematics demonstrates the ability to mimic human knee movement and exhibit much less incongruence compared to other commercial brace joints.
کلیدواژهها English
