Design and Optimisation of a 3D Printed Composite Prosthetic Foot: a Finite Element Feasibility Study

Currently, the most traditional manufacturing process for composite prosthetic feet is lamination. While allowing the production of light high-performance structures, the process is very expensive and limits both production rate and customisability. Additive manufacturing can be an alternative solution to cope with these limitations. This work explores the possibility to additively manufacture a prosthetic foot with the same stiffness of a laminated one. To this end, a commercially available foot is first analysed via numerical simulations. Using this reference case, a beam elements-based tool is developed and validated. The tool was then used to optimise four different designs of a possible additively manufactured prosthesis. This preliminary work resulted in two possible 3D printed foot designs that could be further analysed to potentially substitute the laminated prosthesis.