The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	A new concept in artificial ligament and tendons modeling : finite element analysis
Author:	Sokol, Miroslaw
View Online:	njit-etd1996-085 (xiii, 75 pages ~ 2.5 MB pdf)
Department:	Biomedical Engineering Committee
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Biomedical Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Chu, Taiming (Committee chair) Koplik, Bernard (Committee member) Wong, Edward Kin-Ming (Committee member)
Date:	1996-05
Keywords:	Ligament prostheses. Tendons. Finite element method.
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	Reconstruction of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) has been a major focus in sports medicine for over twenty years. Severe or unrepairable damage of the ACL due to sport injury is a major problem faced by orthopedic surgeons and engineers. To successfully replace or reconstruct an injured ACL, the mechanical properties as well as the dimensional limitation of the material used must be similar to the biological ligaments. Although excessive literature describes experimental investigation on the mechanical property and clinical application of the ligament material, there is no analytical study that describes strains, stresses, and endurance in the bone/ligament/bone complex. The Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is a method to study this problem. The objectives of the present investigation are (1) to develop a finite element model (FEM) of an artificial ligament yarn, the emphasis is put on the development of the elastic FEM, (2) to analyze stress distribution in the ligament yarn fibers due to various loading conditions and designs, and (3) to compare results obtained from the FEA of the elastic model with results obtained from laboratory tensile test. Results obtained from the FEM model of the ACL prosthesis yarn are confirmed by experimental measurements.