Finite element analysis of different fused deposit materials utilised in fabrication of elbow orthosis

Abstract

Present work aimed to analyse the mechanical properties of various fused deposit materials used in the fabrication of elbow orthosis with the help of simulation. Four materials introduced from ANSYS Engineering data library were analysed, namely Nylon 6/6, ABS, HIPS and Polycarbonate (PC). The structural analysis of elbow orthosis helps us to investigate various materials working life. The orthosis was subjected to 20Nm of torque at the elbow joint. In the present work, the elbow orthosis finite element model was developed using SolidWorks 2017 and further analysed with the ANSYS 2019 R1 academic workbench. The result showed that ABS could withstand 628.31 MPa of equivalent stress which was maximum as compared to other materials and has a total deflection of 3.3817 mm, which indicates it can be used in fabrication of the elbow orthosis.