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Assessment of 3D printed mechanical metamaterials for prosthetic liners

Assessment of 3D printed mechanical metamaterials for prosthetic liners
Assessment of 3D printed mechanical metamaterials for prosthetic liners

This study focuses on novel design and evaluation of Elastic 50A (EL50) mechanical metamaterials with open-cell patterns for its potential application to lower limb residuum/socket interfaces, specifically that of a transtibial (TT) amputee. Mechanical characteristics, that is, effective Young’s modulus (E), was tuned by altering metamaterial porosity, which was experimentally verified. Specifically, pore radius of the unit cell was varied to achieve a range of E-values (0.05–1.71 MPa) for these 3D printed metamaterials. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was conducted to evaluate pressure distribution across key load-bearing anatomical sites of a TT residuum. Using designed metamaterials for homogeneous liners, pressure profiles were studied and compared with a silicone liner case. Additionally, a custom metamaterial liner was designed by assigning appropriate metamaterials to four load-sensitive and tolerant anatomical sites of the TT residuum. The results suggest that lowest pressure variation (PV), as a measure of pressure distribution levels and potential comfort for amputees, was achieved by the custom metamaterial liner compared to any of the homogeneous liners included in this study. It is envisaged that this work may aid future design and development of custom liners using now commonly available 3D printing technologies and available elastomer materials to maximise comfort, tissue safety and overall rehabilitation outcomes for lower limb amputees.

3D printing, Finite element analysis, Lower limb amputee, Metamaterials, Pressure distribution, Prosthetic liner, prosthetic liner, metamaterials, pressure distribution, finite element analysis
0954-4119
348-357
Devin, Kirstie
a8f23fa0-db53-44a4-abd8-03a72800f88d
Tang, Jinghua
b4b9a22c-fd6d-427a-9ab1-51184c1d2a2c
Hamilton, Andrew R.
9088cf01-8d7f-45f0-af56-b4784227447c
Moser, David
09874cab-348f-47f9-b018-1c2875d16998
Jiang, Liudi
374f2414-51f0-418f-a316-e7db0d6dc4d1
et al.
Devin, Kirstie
a8f23fa0-db53-44a4-abd8-03a72800f88d
Tang, Jinghua
b4b9a22c-fd6d-427a-9ab1-51184c1d2a2c
Hamilton, Andrew R.
9088cf01-8d7f-45f0-af56-b4784227447c
Moser, David
09874cab-348f-47f9-b018-1c2875d16998
Jiang, Liudi
374f2414-51f0-418f-a316-e7db0d6dc4d1

Devin, Kirstie, Tang, Jinghua and Hamilton, Andrew R. , et al. (2024) Assessment of 3D printed mechanical metamaterials for prosthetic liners. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part H: Journal of Engineering in Medicine, 238 (3), 348-357. (doi:10.1177/09544119231225529).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This study focuses on novel design and evaluation of Elastic 50A (EL50) mechanical metamaterials with open-cell patterns for its potential application to lower limb residuum/socket interfaces, specifically that of a transtibial (TT) amputee. Mechanical characteristics, that is, effective Young’s modulus (E), was tuned by altering metamaterial porosity, which was experimentally verified. Specifically, pore radius of the unit cell was varied to achieve a range of E-values (0.05–1.71 MPa) for these 3D printed metamaterials. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was conducted to evaluate pressure distribution across key load-bearing anatomical sites of a TT residuum. Using designed metamaterials for homogeneous liners, pressure profiles were studied and compared with a silicone liner case. Additionally, a custom metamaterial liner was designed by assigning appropriate metamaterials to four load-sensitive and tolerant anatomical sites of the TT residuum. The results suggest that lowest pressure variation (PV), as a measure of pressure distribution levels and potential comfort for amputees, was achieved by the custom metamaterial liner compared to any of the homogeneous liners included in this study. It is envisaged that this work may aid future design and development of custom liners using now commonly available 3D printing technologies and available elastomer materials to maximise comfort, tissue safety and overall rehabilitation outcomes for lower limb amputees.

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Accepted/In Press date: 21 December 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 27 January 2024
Published date: 27 January 2024
Keywords: 3D printing, Finite element analysis, Lower limb amputee, Metamaterials, Pressure distribution, Prosthetic liner, prosthetic liner, metamaterials, pressure distribution, finite element analysis

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 486626
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/486626
ISSN: 0954-4119
PURE UUID: cc449d16-5109-4955-a658-37322ed1a19c
ORCID for Kirstie Devin: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6794-2375
ORCID for Jinghua Tang: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3359-5891
ORCID for Andrew R. Hamilton: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4627-849X
ORCID for Liudi Jiang: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3400-825X

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 29 Jan 2024 17:31
Last modified: 05 Oct 2024 02:18

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Contributors

Author: Kirstie Devin ORCID iD
Author: Jinghua Tang ORCID iD
Author: David Moser
Author: Liudi Jiang ORCID iD
Corporate Author: et al.

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