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Abstract: Increasingly, musculoskeletal models of the human body are used as powerful tools to study biological structures. The lower limb, and in particular the foot, is of interest because it is the primary physical interaction between the body and the environment during locomotion. The goal of this paper is to adopt the finite element (FE) modeling and analysis approaches to create a state-of-the-art 3D coupled foot–boot model for future studies on biomechanical investigation of stress injury mechanism, foot wear design and parachute landing fall simulation. In the modeling process, the foot–ankle model with lower leg was developed based on Computed Tomography (CT) images using ScanIP, Surfacer and ANSYS. Then, the boot was represented by assembling the FE models of upper, insole, midsole and outsole built based on the FE model of the foot–ankle, and finally the coupled foot–boot model was generated by putting together the models of the lower limb and boot. In this study, the FE model of foot and ankle was validated during balance standing. There was a good agreement in the overall patterns of predicted and measured plantar pressure distribution published in literature. The coupled foot–boot model will be fully validated in the subsequent works under both static and dynamic loading conditions for further studies on injuries investigation in military and sports, foot wear design and characteristics of parachute landing impact in military. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The inverse mode problems for the finite element model of an axially vibrating rod are formulated and solved. It is known that for the finite element model, based on linear shape functions, of the rod, the mass and stiffness matrices are both tridiagonal. It is shown that the finite element model of the rod can be constructed from two eigenvalues, their corresponding eigenvectors and the total mass of the rod. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the construction of a physically realizable rod with positive mass and stiffness elements from two eigenpairs and the total mass of the rod are established. If these conditions are satisfied, then the construction of the model is unique. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Degenerative changes to the intervertebral disc structure appear gradually in the aging process, and are likely to affect the fracture patterns of the thoracolumbar vertebral body — a common site of spinal injuries — by changing the mechanical interaction within each motion segment. This study focused on the influence of disc degeneration on the mechanism of load transmission through the thoracolumbar vertebral body. Compressive stresses and ways of load transmission were examined in cases of normal and degenerated discs. The stress analysis was performed using the finite element (FE) method. For normal discs, the highest compressive stresses were found in the central region of the discs, corresponding to the anatomical nucleus. Such high stress made the endplates bulge towards the vertebral bodies. Hence, the fracture would most probably start in the center of the endplate. For degenerated discs, the peak stresses rose to high levels in the annuli. Thus, the annulus was mostly under compression, and so was the periphery of the endplate, with much less deflection at its center. The failure of the vertebra was due to the fracture of the periphery of the endplate. Ways of load transmission through the vertebral body were strongly affected by the disc condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spinal stenosis can be found in any part of the spine, though it is most commonly located on the lumbar and cervical areas. It has been documented in the literature that bilateral facetectomy in a lumbar motion segment to increase the space induces an increase in flexibility at the level at which the surgery was performed. However, the result of bilateral facetectomy on the stability of the thoracolumbar spine has not been studied. A nonlinear three-dimensional finite element (FE) model of thoracolumbar T11–L1 was built to explore the influence of bilateral facetectomy. The FE model of T11–L1 was validated against published experimental results under various physiological loadings. The FE model with bilateral facetectomy was evaluated under flexion, extension, lateral bending and axial rotation to determine alterations in kinematics. Results show that bilateral facetectomy causes increase in motion, considerable increase in axial rotation and least increase in lateral bending. Removal of facets did not result in significant change in the sagittal motion in flexion and extension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to build and validate the FE models of thoracolumbar junctional T11-T12 and T12-L1 functional spinal units (FSUs) and compare the biomechanical responses of the two FSUs under physiological loading modes: flexion, extension, lateral bending and axial rotation. Anatomically accurate FE models of thoracolumbar T11-T12 and T12-L1 FSUs were developed and validated against published experimental results in terms of load displacement responses and range of motion (ROM) under flexion and extension pure moments of 7.5 Nm, left and right lateral bending pure moments of 7.5 Nm and left and right axial torque of 7.5 Nm. The overall responses predicted by the T11-T12 and T12-L1 FE models showed differences in stiffness under different load configurations. Amongst all loading configurations, the motions at T11-T12 and T12-L1 were the stiffest under axial torque. The lateral bending motions of T11-T12 and T12-L1 were relatively flexible. Under sagittal moments, the motion in extension was greater than in flexion at level T11-T12, while the rotation in flexion was greater than in extension at level T12-L1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: STUDY DESIGN A finite element (FE) model of thoracic spine (T10-T11) was constructed and used to determine instantaneous axes of rotation (IARs).OBJECTIVES To characterize the locations and loci of IARs in three anatomic planes.SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA The center of rotation is a part of a precise method of documenting the kinematics of a spinal segment for spinal stability and deformity assessments and for implant devices study. There is little information about loci of IARs in thoracic spine.METHODS A FE model of thoracic spine (T10-T11) was developed and validated against published data. The validated model was then used to determine the locations and loci of IARs in three anatomic planes.RESULTS Within the validated range, The IARs locations and loci were found to vary with the applied pure moments. Under flexion and extension pure moments, the loci of IARs were tracked anterosuperiorly for flexion and posteroinferiorly for extension with rotation between the superior endplate and the geometrical center of the inferior vertebra T11. Under left and right lateral bending pure moments, the loci were detected to diverge latero-inferiorly from the mid-height of the intervertebral disc, then converge medio-inferiorly toward the geometrical center of the inferior vertebra T11. For axial rotation, the IARs were located between anterior nucleus and anulus and found to diverge in opposite direction latero-posteriorly with increasing left and right axial torque.CONCLUSIONS The results of IARs would provide further understanding to the kinematics and biomechanical responses of the human thoracic spine, which is important for the diagnosis of disc degeneration and implant study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the thoracic posterior vertebral elements on the kinematics of T10–T11 motion segment in sagittal plane by assessing the locations and loci of the instantaneous axes of rotation (IARs) under flexion and extension pure moments using finite element (FE) method. The IAR has proven to be a useful parameter of vertebral motion and it is an indicator of spinal instability. An anatomically accurate FE model of thoracic T10–T11 functional spinal unit (FSU) was used to characterize the loci of centers of rotation for the intact T10–T11 FSU and disc body unit (without posterior vertebral elements) under flexion and extension pure moments. The centers of rotation predicted by the intact model and disc body unit of thoracic T10–T11 for both flexion and extension were directly below the geometrical center of the moving vertebra. However, the loci of the IARs were significantly affected by the posterior vertebral elements. The loci of instantaneous axes of rotation for the intact model were tracked superoanteriorly and inferoposteriorly for flexion and extension with rotation, respectively. While, for the disc body unit, the loci were detected to diverge lateroinferiorly from the mid-height of the intervertebral disc, they converge medio-inferiorly toward the superior endplate of the inferior vertebra T11 with increased moment. These findings may offer an insight to better understanding the kinematics of the human thoracic spine and provide clinically relevant information for the evaluation of spinal stability and implant devices functionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonlinear dynamic control equation of a flexible multi-body system with definite moving attitude is discussed. The motion of the aircraft in space is regarded as known and the influence of the flexible structural members in the aircraft on the motion and attitude of the aircraft is analyzed. By means of a hypothetical mode, the deformation of flexible members is regarded as composed of the line element vibration in the axial direction of rectangular coordinates in space. According to Kane’ s method in dynamics, a dynamic equation is established, which contains the structural stiffness matrix that represents the elastic deformation and the geometric stiffness matrix that represents the nonlinear deformation of the deformed body. Through simplification the dynamic equation of the influence of the planar flexible body with a windsurfboard structure on the spacecraft motion is obtained. The numerical solution for this kind of equation can be realized by a computer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]