Assessment of the Ground Reaction Forces on Metatarsal Foot Bones Due to Changes on Pinball Region Contact

Abstract

With the aim to determine the importance of considering the contact between bodies, in this work, has been developed a numerical three dimensional model of the foot, which includes 28 bones, 504 thin ligaments, 48 plantar ligaments and the posterior tibial tendon; to find the values of the pinball region contact between each pair of bones, which at the same time, helps to achieve a correct distribution of body weight and, thus, highlight the importance of taking into account the configuration of the contact parameters between two bodies, to perform a correct characterization of the biomechanical effect of the foot. First, the validation of the model was carried out, determining the reaction forces of the metatarsals with the ground, and comparing them with the experimental reaction forces, subsequently, this validation was used to compare the variation of the reaction force once the contacts were modified. It was observed that by varying the value of the pinball region the reaction forces with the ground (GRF) can achieve significant changes (up to 159% in the fifth metatarsal into this work) and generates a wrong or a better prediction.