Effect of coronal plane acetabular correction on joint contact pressure in Periacetabular osteotomy: a finite-element analysis

Background The ideal acetabular position for optimizing hip joint biomechanics in periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) remains unclear. We aimed to determine the relationship between acetabular correction in the coronal plane and joint contact pressure (CP) and identify morphological factors associated with residual abnormal CP after correction. Methods Using CT images from 44 patients with hip dysplasia, we performed three patterns of virtual PAOs on patient-specific 3D hip models; the acetabulum was rotated laterally to the lateral center-edge angles (LCEA) of 30°, 35°, and 40°. Finite-element analysis was used to calculate the CP of the acetabular cartilage during a single-leg stance. Results Coronal correction to the LCEA of 30° decreased the median maximum CP 0.5-fold compared to preoperatively (p < 0.001). Additional correction to the LCEA of 40° further decreased CP in 15 hips (34%) but conversely increased CP in 29 hips (66%). The increase in CP was associated with greater preoperative extrusion index (p = 0.030) and roundness index (p = 0.038). Overall, virtual PAO failed to normalize CP in 11 hips (25%), and a small anterior wall index (p = 0.049) and a large roundness index (p = 0.003) were associated with residual abnormal CP. Conclusions The degree of acetabular correction in the coronal plane where CP is minimized varied among patients. Coronal plane correction alone failed to normalize CP in 25% of patients in this study. In patients with an anterior acetabular deficiency (anterior wall index < 0.21) and an aspherical femoral head (roundness index > 53.2%), coronal plane correction alone may not normalize CP. Further studies are needed to clarify the effectiveness of multiplanar correction, including in the sagittal and axial planes, in optimizing the hip joint’s contact mechanics.

Development of a new anchorage system for carbon fiber–reinforced polymer rods using extrusion process

Carbon fiber–reinforced polymer (CFRP) rods have been considered as a candidate material for prestressed concrete applications because of their superior properties. For current applications, successful use of CFRP rods is linked to an efficient anchorage system design. This paper presents a newly developed anchorage system for CFRP rods and the design concept that the extrusion process is used to generate gripping force. The proposed anchorage system consists of a steel barrel and an aluminum sleeve, and an extrusion region is designed on the outside of barrel to generate a suitable contact pressure distribution on the CFRP rod. A mathematical model was proposed to estimate the contact pressure on the CFRP rod and the capacity of anchorage system. The simulation of extrusion and loading process was conducted with a three-dimensional (3D) finite-element (FE) model. The key design parameters of anchorage system were analyzed to obtain an optimized parameter combination. The experimental validation showed that the new anchorage system is capable of allowing the CFRP rod to attain the ultimate tensile strength.

A 3D Printed Modular Soft Gripper Integrated With Metamaterials for Conformal Grasping

A single universal robotic gripper with the capacity to fulfill a wide variety of gripping and grasping tasks has always been desirable. A three-dimensional (3D) printed modular soft gripper with highly conformal soft fingers that are composed of positive pressure soft pneumatic actuators along with a mechanical metamaterial was developed. The fingers of the soft gripper along with the mechanical metamaterial, which integrates a soft auxetic structure and compliant ribs, was 3D printed in a single step, without requiring support material and postprocessing, using a low-cost and open-source fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer that employs a commercially available thermoplastic poly (urethane) (TPU). The soft fingers of the gripper were optimized using finite element modeling (FEM). The FE simulations accurately predicted the behavior and performance of the fingers in terms of deformation and tip force. Also, FEM was used to predict the contact behavior of the mechanical metamaterial to prove that it highly decreases the contact pressure by increasing the contact area between the soft fingers and the grasped objects and thus proving its effectiveness in enhancing the grasping performance of the gripper. The contact pressure can be decreased by up to 8.5 times with the implementation of the mechanical metamaterial. The configuration of the highly conformal gripper can be easily modulated by changing the number of fingers attached to its base to tailor it for specific manipulation tasks. Two-dimensional (2D) and 3D grasping experiments were conducted to assess the grasping performance of the soft modular gripper and to prove that the inclusion of the metamaterial increases its conformability and reduces the out-of-plane deformations of the soft monolithic fingers upon grasping different objects and consequently, resulting in the gripper in three different configurations including two, three and four-finger configurations successfully grasping a wide variety of objects.

COMPUTATIONAL-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF CONTACT INTERACTION OF BODIES WITH NEARLY FORM SURFACES

In many constructions, their elements are in contact with nominally matching (congruent) surfaces. In reality, this contact is disturbed due to deviations in the shape of these surfaces from the nominal. To study the effect of this perturbation on the distribution of contact pressure, the analysis of the stress-strain state of the body system of punched sheet-die is carried out. The middle element of this system deviates from the nominally flat shape. This causes a change in the contact pressure distribution. The proportionality between the clamping force and the level of contact pressure is also lost. The reliability and accuracy of the results obtained by numerical calculation have been experimentally confirmed. Keywords: stress-strain state; contact pressure; contact interaction; method of variational inequalities; Kalker variational principle; finite element method

NUMERCNAL ANALYSIS OF CONTACT INTERACTION OF BODIES WITH NEARLY FORM SURFACES

Contact interaction of structural elements has been studied in the case of nominally close (nearly matching) surfaces. A non uniform gap is present between the contacting parts. Contact pressure and contact spot depend on the shape of this gap. Correspondingly so does the stress-strain state of the contacting bodies too. Since the problem is essentially nonlinear, the contact pressure distribution and the contact zones change with the growing loads. The solution is qualitatively different to the case of perfectly matching bodies. For the latter case, the contact pressure is linearly proportional to the load and the contact zone is predefined. Hence for the real structures for which the deviation from the nominal shape is unavoidable the impact of these inaccuracies on the contact pressure distribution and the stress-strain state need to be taken into account. This problem is addressed in the paper by example of elements of stamping dies. Keywords: element of stamping dies, stress-strain state, contact pressure, contact interaction, variational inequalities, Kalker’s variational principle, finite element method, boundary element method

A Novel Reciprocating Tribometer for Friction and Wear Measurements with High Contact Pressure and Large Area Contact Configurations

There are many moving machine assemblies with conformal tribological contacts at very high contact pressures, e.g., sliding bearings, propeller shaft bearings and machine guideways. Furthermore, applications such as trunnion and guide vane bearing in Kaplan turbines have very low sliding speeds and oscillatory types of motion. Although there is a vast selection of tribology test rigs available, there is still a lack of test equipment to perform friction and wear tests under high contact pressure, reciprocatory sliding and large area contact. The aim of this work is thus to develop a novel reciprocating tribometer and test method that enables friction and wear tests under low-speed reciprocatory sliding with contact pressures up to 90 MPa in a flat-on-flat contact configuration. First, a thorough description of the test rig design is given. Secondly, the influence of contact pressure and stroke length on the tribological properties of a stainless steel and polymer composite material combination is studied. The significance of considering creep, friction during the stroke and contact temperature is specifically highlighted. The novel tribometer can be used to screen different bearing and shaft material combinations and to evaluate the friction and wear performance of self-lubricating bearings for the specific operating conditions found in Kaplan turbines.

Effects of Contact Pressure in Reflectance Photoplethysmography in an In Vitro Tissue-Vessel Phantom

With the continued development and rapid growth of wearable technologies, PPG has become increasingly common in everyday consumer devices such as smartphones and watches. There is, however, minimal knowledge on the effect of the contact pressure exerted by the sensor device on the PPG signal and how it might affect its morphology and the parameters being calculated. This study explores a controlled in vitro study to investigate the effect of continually applied contact pressure on PPG signals (signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and 17 morphological PPG features) from an artificial tissue-vessel phantom across a range of simulated blood pressure values. This experiment confirmed that for reflectance PPG signal measurements for a given anatomical model, there exists an optimum sensor contact pressure (between 35.1 mmHg and 48.1 mmHg). Statistical analysis shows that temporal morphological features are less affected by contact pressure, lending credit to the hypothesis that for some physiological parameters, such as heart rate and respiration rate, the contact pressure of the sensor is of little significance, whereas the amplitude and geometric features can show significant change, and care must be taken when using morphological analysis for parameters such as SpO2 and assessing autonomic responses.

Contact problems for an inhomogeneous elastic wedge with variable Poisson’s ratio

Plane contact problems of the elasticity theory are investigated for a wedge when Poisson’s ratio is an arbitrary smooth function with respect to the angular coordinate while shear modulus is constant. For this case Young’s modulus is also variable with respect to the angular coordinate. A finite contact domain is given on one wedge face, it does not include the wedge apex, while the other wedge face is rigidly fixed (problem A) or stress-free (problem B). To reduce the problems to integral equations with respect to the contact pressure, we use the general Freiberger type representation for the solution of elastic equilibrium equations written in polar coordinates with variable Poisson’s ratio. Exact solutions of auxiliary problems are constructed with the help of Mellin integral transforms. The regular asymptotic method employed is effective for contact domains relatively distant from the wedge apex. It is shown that logarithmic terms appear in the asymptotic solutions for the inhomogeneous material which are missing in the well-known asymptotics for the homogeneous one. In contact problem C which is corresponding to problem A, the friction and roughness are taken into account in the contact region. The roughness of the wedge surface is simulated by a Winkler type coating. The collocation method is used for solving integral equations of the second kind. Unlike problem A, in problem C the contact pressure does not have square root singularities at end-points where it takes finite values. Calculations are made for the cases when Poisson’s ratio and Young’s modulus increase or decrease from the surface of the wedge.