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Dissertation
A new method for evaluating the structural characteristics of biological and artificial joints
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
1998
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00009383
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop a new method for evaluating the relationship between load and displacement in biological structures. The method developed centers on a six degree of freedom instrumented linkage device. This device allows for the application and measurement of loads and displacements in the same reference frame without constraining the structure being tested. Loads and displacements are measured and described with respect to three rotational and three translational parameters28, which can be easily renamed with clinically terminology to make data clear to clinicians as well as engineers. This method was applied in two different ways to human joints. First, three joint flexibility testers were developed for the ankle, knee, and cervical spine. Second the feasibility to using this method to simulate artificial joints for wear testing was examined. The joint flexibility testers were designed, fabricated, and used in a number of studies. The Ankle Flexibility Tester (AFT) was found to have positional accuracy of better than 1.2[degrees] in rotation and 0.5 mm in translation. Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC's) calculated from test-retest data for 13 young, healthy subjects tested several days apart indicated that the AFT has a reliability higher that 0.85. A similar study on the Neck Flexibility Tester (NFT), performed on 12 healthy subjects showed the reliability of the NFT, in measuring flexibility, to be good to excellent with ICC values ranging from 0.57 to 0.97 with an average of 0.83. These devices were used to study the flexibility of joints under various conditions. The studies demonstrated the ability of these devices to detect differences in flexibility. A numerical model of a Universal Joint Simulator (UJS) was created with Adams, a dynamic simulation software. This model was used to evaluate the usefulness of the newly developed method to simulate a hip joint for wear testing. Displacement and loading data was digitized from the literature4,31 and used to simulate a hip joint through a single gait cycle. Load requirements for the rotational and translational actuators were determined from the model. The development of this model was a good first iteration through the design process and will be useful in the future development of an actual UJS.
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Details
- Title
- A new method for evaluating the structural characteristics of biological and artificial joints
- Creators
- Robert James Nobilini Jr.
- Contributors
- Sorin Siegler (Advisor) - Drexel University, Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- xi, 97 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- College of Engineering (1970-2026); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991021889098404721