Stiffness Analysis of Above Knee Prosthesis

Abstract

While a healthy human walks, his or her legs mutually perform good repeatability with high accuracy. This provides an esthetical movement and balance. People with above knee prosthesis want to perform walking as esthetical as a healthy human. Therefore, to achieve a healthy walking, the above knee prosthesis must provide a good stiffness performance. Especially stiffness values are required when adding a second axis movement to the ankle for eversion and inversion. In this paper, stiffness analysis of above-knee prosthesis is presented. The translational displacement of above knee prosthesis is obtained when the prosthesis is subjected to the external forces. Knowing stiffness values of the above knee prosthesis, designers can compute prosthesis parameters such as ergonomic structure, height, and weight and energy consumption.