Finite Element Design and Manufacturing of a Woven Carbon Fiber Prosthetic Foot

Abstract

This paper presents design, analysis and manufacturing of an energy storing-releasing prosthetic foot that can be used for walking and running. The designed factors were estimated to gain the required specifications for above knee patient weight 62kg wearing spring type heel foot prosthesis. A combination between CAD and CAE is helpful towards achieving this goal because of geometry, material and loading complexity. Thus, the foot parts are designed and assembled via Solidworks version 15.0 and the analysis was performed by means of Ansys version 18.0. In addition to strength, the weight is a significant factor to minimize the labour of the user, so the composite material, specifically carbon woven fiber and epoxy resin are selected. The human gait is classified to three main phases which are: heel strike, mid stance and forefoot, thus a corresponding static tests were conducted depending on ISO 10328. The foot thickness is increased gradually until reach the required specifications according to AOPA in the permissilmble strength limit. The foot is deflected 11.4 mm under 900N at standing phase, the keel is deflected 55 mm under the same load whereas the heel is deflected 13.22 mm by the effect of 300N load. Since the keel deflection is more than 25mm and the heel more than 13mm, the design is considered dynamic foot. The finite element results are considered for manufacturing the required foot.