For underground coal mining, over 3,000 musculoskeletal disorder related injuries were reported to the MSHA injury and illness database in 2002, of which 17% were to the knee. When seam heights approach 56 inches or less, these injuries may result from the fact that workers are confined to their knees. Therefore, the industry has attempted to reduce the injury rate by providing equipment such as knee pads that distribute forces and stresses. However, these knee pads are currently designed without knowledge of the forces and stresses in the stabilizing structures within the knee during mining activities. This information is essential in understanding, and ultimately preventing injuries to the knee using interventions such as knee pads. Therefore, this work developed experimental methodologies to collect input and validation data for one subject-specific finite element model of the tibio- and patellofemoral joints consisting of: 1) geometry, 2) joint kinematics, 3) magnitudes of ligament in situ and meniscal resultant forces, and 4) ligament structural properties. Specimen geometry was reconstructed from MR images and verified by comparing to measurements from the actual geometry. The specimen was then mounted within a robotic/UFS testing system that applied external loads at deep knee flexion and recorded resulting kinematics and measured soft tissue forces (to be used for validation). These forces were determined by the principle of superposition as has been done previously; however, a novel surgical technique that removed bone blocks was developed in this work such that the ligaments remained intact. Thus, an innovative approach to clamp bone blocks of the required shape and size for structural testing was also developed. The finite element model was constructed from the experimental data, and displacements and rotations about all axes were applied to the model to verify reasonable motions were achieved. Thus, a finite element model of the knee was developed whereby the properties of only the articular cartilage and meniscus were not subject-specific. Future efforts will include model validation and use of the model for evaluating and designing interventions for the mining community.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-06242007-224831 |
| Date | 25 September 2007 |
| Creators | Wickwire, Alexis C |
| Contributors | Richard E. Debski, PhD, Mark S. Redfern, PhD, Mark C. Miller, PhD |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-06242007-224831/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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