NUMERICAL MODELS OF A CARBON FIBRE PROSTHESIS FOR ATHLETES

Young disable people often require to have the possibility to lead not only an independent life, but also to behave in a completely normal way and even to take part in agonistic competitions. It is therefore a necessity to provide them with prostheses in new and advanced materials, allowing to express themselves as athletes. Object of this paper is a foot prosthesis for transtibial amputated athletes. The prosthesis is made of a single lamina reinforced in carbon fibre. The lamina has the functionality of the muscle-skeleton apparatus: not only its strength, but also its elasticity is important during the athlete’s run, since it is supposed to be comparable with a sane leg. Static and fatigue tests are experimentally performed on the prosthesis, by means of an uni-axial machine or an hydraulic actuator. A single force was applied to the prosthesis, generating mixed loadings in the carbon fibre lamina. In parallel to the experimental tests, a numerical model of the foot prosthesis is also developed, validated by experimental results of strains and displacements. In this way, a valid tool to determine the stress state inside the prosthesis is obtained, useful to check the most important parameters of the material and quantify their influence in the stiffness and displacement variation. These are useful considerations to improve the athlete’s performances.