Knee Energy Absorption in Full Extension Landing Using Finite Element Analysis

Abstract

Full extension landing present great amount of stress, deflection, and energy, which damps by a contribution of bones, muscle, and ground reaction force (GRF). This study focused on analyzing the bone components deflection and energy absorption in full extension landing by dynamic finite element analysis (FEA). The impact load and time were derived from our previous research from a female subject with 18.8 BMI, who landed from three different levels, 25, 50, and 75 cm, to the calibrated force plate and 200 Hz camera. The three dimensional (3D) model developed by reprocessing of the computed tomography (CT) images by Mimics and Geomagic software’s’ in order to take the smooth and uniform surfaces. The imported data analyzed by FEA software Abaqus v6.9 while the instance impact load is applied to the femur in the upward direction. The maximum deflection and energy absorption was measured. It is concluded that full extension landing creates a great deflection in the knee components which might make high strain energy and bone to bone contact. The critical deflection and energy absorption might be considered for more reliable design and material selection of artificial knee components.