Development of a Protocol for the Evaluation of the Mechanical Behavior of a Transtibial Prosthesis by Infrared Thermography

Abstract

Temperature is one of the most common indicators of the structural health of devices and components. In recent times, infrared thermography has become a mature and widely accepted monitoring technique to measure temperatures in real time in a non-contact manner. In the clinical context, it is also used to study some diseases or the mechanical behavior of endoprostheses. However, the assessment of exoprostheses has been limited to gait analysis or the study of their interaction with residual limbs. The aim of this work is to assess thermography as a tool for evaluating mechanical stresses in a transtibial prosthesis through the development of a protocol that allows the identification of critical points. A transtibial prosthesis was recorded undergoing mechanical stress during the stance phase using a device that simulates the human gait and a thermal camera. A protocol was developed to detect critical thermal points that could reveal areas with the greatest concentration of such stress in a gait test. It can be concluded that thermography can be used as tool for assessing lower limb prostheses in dynamic tests because it is a non-invasive method and its results can be obtained in real time.