Mechanical Analysis of Knee Joint under Different Load

Goo, Li Jie (2018) Mechanical Analysis of Knee Joint under Different Load. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

The knee joint is the largest joint in the human body where the main movement revolves around the femur, tibia, fibula and patella. However, it is often subjected to degeneration, injuries or diseases especially among aged man and woman. Those who suffers from those unfortunate events will have their daily activities limited and little to know that the structural damage is inevitable and might be permanent. Hence, proper studies on the knee joint will assist in understanding the mechanics of the knee joint, besides learning the mechanical behaviour. With that, the complicated assembly of knee joint and the effect of load on the joint can be deduced and studied. This allow me to know the possible root cause of certain knee joint disorders by relating to the force applied in long term and we might be able to foster appropriate solution in preventing these irreversible disorders from happening. SolidWorks will be the software to be used in this study throughout the modeling and simulation. After obtaining the knee joint model, the material properties of the femur and tibia are determined before starting to setup for simulation. The knee joint is applied with different load ranging from 400 N to 900 N throughout the simulation and the results obtained are based on the behaviour on the contact points of the femur and tibia. The types of analysis being done include stress intensity analysis, equivalent strain analysis, factor of safety analysis and also potential deformation (respective displacement) analysis. It is then found that by increasing the exerted load onto the knee joint, the stress, strain and potential deformation on the contact points of the knee joint increases as well while the values tend to peak on the left contact point of the femur in the simulation. The factor of safety on both the knee joint and the contact points becomes lower when the load is greater, meaning that a person with heavier weight will have a higher chance of developing fracture, degeneration or even diseases like osteoarthritis etc. than a person with lighter weight.