Design of Prosthetic Foot from Polymer Materials Reinforced by Carbon Fibers

Abstract

Loss of the lower limb can cause loss of mobility. At all places and at all times, efforts have always been made to make up for such a loss. In this work polymer composite materials had been used to manufacture prosthetic foot. Polymer composite materials PMMA:SR/PUR reinforced by carbon fibers (CF) were prepared as suitable material for prosthetic foot then, tensile characteristics were measured and determined. Numerical work included Finite element method (ANSYS-15) was used to analyze and evaluate deformation, stress and strain characteristics of a new designed prosthetic foot, which was treated as three-dimensional structure composite polymer material. The experimental and theoretical results were improved that polymer composite material can be used for this application. Keywords: Poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) , Silicon Rubber (SR) , Polyurethane Rubber (PUR) , Carbon Fibers (CF). INTRODUCTION rosthetic limbs are fabricated devices that provide amputees with a replacement for their missing lower limbs, restoring some function such as walking, running and skiing. New design of prosthetic feet dos not replicate the features of normal foot and wide range activity between the normal and prosthetic foot. Today engineering of prosthetic feet looking for number acceptance activity prosthetic foot for amputees to be able functions [1]. Primary prosthetic foot was made from wooden with metallic bars have many restricted for amputees peoples by heavy weight, lower durability , hard process and high cost and this limitation of primary or originally prosthetic foot caused more restricted for amputees functions. Novel material such as polymer, polymer blends and polymer composite reinforced by different fibers (Glass, Carbon or Kevlar) were suggested as suitable materials for this application for their good performance, low weight, easy process and low cost and many researchers had been see this new material is more popular and suitable for prosthetic foot application [2,3,4]. The properties of polymer material can be developed by many ways such as blending with other polymer or reinforcement with different fibers to enhancement the mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural, fatigue and impact energy which is very important for this application. Fiber as reinforcement material of composite material can be design by many ways chopped or woven for this application and carbon fiber is the most reinforcement material suitable for prosthetic foot for good P