BackgroundOpenSim musculoskeletal models provide an accurate simulation environment that eases limitations of in vivo and in vitro studies. In this work, a biomechanical knee model was formulated with femoral articular cartilages and menisci along with 25 connective tissue bundles representing ligaments and capsules. The strain patterns of the connective tissues in the presence of femoral articular cartilage and menisci in the OpenSim knee model was probed in a first of its kind study.MethodsThe effect of knee flexion (0°–120°), knee rotation (− 40° to 30°) and knee adduction (− 15° to 15°) on the anterior cruciate, posterior cruciate, medial collateral, lateral collateral ligaments and other connective tissues were studied by passive simulation. Further, a new parameter for assessment of strain namely, the differential inter-bundle strain of the connective tissues were analyzed to provide new insights for injury kinematics.ResultsACL, PCL, LCL and PL was observed to follow a parabolic strain pattern during flexion while MCL represented linear strain patterns. All connective tissues showed non-symmetric parabolic strain variation during rotation. During adduction, the strain variation was linear for the knee bundles except for FL, PFL and TL.ConclusionsStrains higher than 0.1 were observed in most of the bundles during lateral rotation followed by abduction, medial rotation and adduction. In the case of flexion, highest strains were observed in aACL and aPCL. A combination of strains at a flexion of 0° with medial rotation of 30° or a flexion of 80° with rotation of 30° are evaluated as rupture-prone kinematics.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12938-018-0474-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

3D Printed ABS polymer samples were investigated for understanding the effect of layer thickness on the various mechanical properties of the component. Standard samples with varying layer thickness were prepared by 3D printing machine which works on the principle of Fused Deposition modeling (FDM) method and compared with sample prepared by standard injection molding method. Results show that tensile strength (36 MPa), impact strength (103.6 J/m) and hardness (R107) were highest for the samples made by injection molding method. Furthermore, among 3D printed samples, properties were better with smaller layer thickness. With increase in layer thickness, there was negative effect on mechanical properties as tensile strength, impact strength and hardness decreased. Exception with hardness of 3D printed ABS samples was found; for largest layer thickness hardness further increased instead of decreasing.

No abstract

Purpose: Failure of anterior cruciate ligament often occurs in young sports personnel hampering their career. Such ACL ruptures are quite prevalent in sports such as soccer during dynamic loading which occurs at more than one rate of loading. In this work, a structural constitutive equation has been used to predict the forces acting on ACL for different rates of loading. Methods: Ligaments with distal femur and proximal tibia were subjected to tensile loading to avoid crushing of tissue ends and slipping at higher rates of strain. Custom designed cylindrical grippers were fabricated to clamp the distal femur and proximal tibial bony sections. To estimate parameters for the model, eighteen fresh cadaveric femur-ACL-tibia complex (FATC) samples were experimented on by pure tensile loading at three orders of rates of strain viz., 0.003, 0.03, and 0.3 s–1. The experimental force-elongation data was used to obtain parameters for De-Vita and Slaughter’s equation. The model was validated with additional tensile experiments. Results: Statistical analysis demonstrated failure stress, Young’s modulus and volumetric strain energy to vary significantly as a function of rate of strain. Midsection failure was observed only in samples tested at 0.03 s–1. Femoral or tibial insertion failure were observed in all other experiments irrespective of rate of strain. Conclusion: Human FATC samples were tensile tested to failure at three rates of strain using custom-designed cylindrical grippers. A structural model was used to model the data for the ACL behaviour in the linear region of loading to predict ligament behaviour during dynamic activities in live subjects.

No abstract