Relevance of the hyperelastic behavior of cruciate ligaments in the modeling of the human knee joint in sagittal plane

Injuries and disorders affecting the knee joint are very common in athletes and older individuals. Passive and active vibration methods, such as acoustic emissions and modal analysis, are extensively used in both industry and the medical field to diagnose structural faults and disorders. To maximize the diagnostic potential of such vibration methods for knee injuries and disorders, a better understanding of the vibroacoustic characteristics of the knee must be developed. In this study, the linearity and vibration transmissibility of the human knee were investigated based on measurements collected on healthy subjects. Different subjects exhibit a substantially different transmissibility behavior due to variances in subject-specific knee structures. Moreover, the vibration behaviors of various subjects’ knees at different leg positions were compared. Variation in sagittal-plane knee angle alters the transmissibility of the joint, while the overall shape of the transmissibility diagrams remains similar. The results demonstrate that an adjusted stimulation signal at frequencies higher than 3 kHz has the potential to be employed in diagnostic applications that are related to knee joint health. This work can pave the way for future studies aimed at employing acoustic emission and modal analysis approaches for knee health monitoring outside of clinical settings, such as for field-deployable diagnostics.

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The Contribution of the Cruciate Ligaments to the Load-Displacement Characteristics of the Human Knee Joint

Journal of Biomechanical Engineering ◽

10.1115/1.3138223 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 102 (4) ◽

pp. 277-283 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

R. L. Piziali ◽

J. Rastegar ◽

D. A. Nagel ◽

D. J. Schurman

Keyword(s):

Knee Joint ◽

Soft Tissues ◽

Lateral Load ◽

Flexion Angle ◽

Cruciate Ligaments ◽

Significant Percentage ◽

Human Knee ◽

Human Knee Joint ◽

Torsional Loads ◽

Anterior Posterior

Human knee specimens were subjected to anterior-posterior, medial-lateral, varus-valgus, and torsional displacement tests. Loads were recorded for the intact joint and for the joint with all soft tissues cut except for the cruciate ligaments. The effect of condylar interference was determined for anterior-posterior, medial-lateral, and torsional displacements. The variation in load with flexion angle was considerable for medial-lateral (0–90-deg flexion) displacements, and less for varus-valgus (0–45-deg flexion) displacements. The cruciates were found to carry almost the entire anterior-posterior load; they carried a significant percentage of the medial-lateral load which varied considerably with flexion angle. A small, but not insignificant percentage of the varus-valgus load was carried by the cruciates and the variations with flexion angle were small. In torsion, the cruciates resisted only internal rotation. In the tested displacement ranges, condylar interference had a small effect on the medial-lateral load but did not affect anterior-posterior or torsional loads.

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Ligament Strain in the Human Knee Joint

Journal of Basic Engineering ◽

10.1115/1.3424920 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 92 (1) ◽

pp. 131-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 48

Author(s):

R. G. Edwards ◽

J. F. Lafferty ◽

K. O. Lange

Keyword(s):

Knee Joint ◽

Analytical Model ◽

Experimental Results ◽

Knee Joints ◽

Strain Gauges ◽

Cruciate Ligaments ◽

Human Knee ◽

Human Knee Joint ◽

Ligament Strain ◽

Good Agreement

The kinematics of the human knee joint and the strain of the ligaments as a function of flexion are determined analytically and experimentally. The experimental results were obtained in 13 tests of four knee joints in which the strain in each of the two collateral and two cruciate ligaments was measured with mercury strain gauges while the tibia was rotated through a flexion angle of 130 deg. The values of the relative ligament strain obtained from the analytical model are in good agreement with the experimental results.

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Modelling of the Human Knee Joint Supported by Active Orthosis

International Journal of Applied Mechanics and Engineering ◽

10.1515/ijame-2018-0007 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 107-120

Author(s):

V. Musalimov ◽

Y. Monahov ◽

M. Tamre ◽

D. Rõbak ◽

A. Sivitski ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Knee Joint ◽

Sagittal Plane ◽

Low Cost ◽

Lower Limbs ◽

Human Knee ◽

Human Knee Joint ◽

Healthy Knee ◽

Knee Joint Motion ◽

Injured Knee ◽

Active Orthosis

AbstractThe article discusses motion of a healthy knee joint in the sagittal plane and motion of an injured knee joint supported by an active orthosis. A kinematic scheme of a mechanism for the simulation of a knee joint motion is developed and motion of healthy and injured knee joints are modelled in Matlab. Angles between links, which simulate the femur and tibia are controlled by Simulink block of Model predictive control (MPC). The results of simulation have been compared with several samples of real motion of the human knee joint obtained from motion capture systems. On the basis of these analyses and also of the analysis of the forces in human lower limbs created at motion, an active smart orthosis is developed. The orthosis design was optimized to achieve an energy saving system with sufficient anatomy, necessary reliability, easy exploitation and low cost. With the orthosis it is possible to unload the knee joint, and also partially or fully compensate muscle forces required for the bending of the lower limb.

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