MME9640 Final Report: Prosthetic Lower Limb for Attachment and Use with Bicycles in Kenya

Low-Resourced Community Lower Leg Prosthesis

Project Summary

Bicycles are one of the most common means of transport for people in Central Africa and West Kenya. Not only do bicycles help people get around, but they also provide jobs for people transporting goods. Nearly 2.5% of the population of 50 million in Kenya has limited mobility due to loss of limbs. We designed this prosthesis to help amputees living in these low-income areas who have lost their lower leg to be able to ride and walk comfortably. Users can adjust the length of the prosthesis according to their lower leg length and height. After performing Finite Element Analysis and testing, the designed foot prosthetic can handle the expected transfer load power of 200 to 300 W. The final prosthetic foot is coated with a corrosion-resistant polyurethane that will delay decay and wear in hot and humid areas, such as the target area. The purchase, manufacturing and maintenance cost of the prosthesis will not exceed $200. Using correct materials will ensure a proper weight balance with the user’s prosthetic and natural foot.

Key Words: Bicycle, Engineering, Kenya, Low Resource Community, Prosthetics, Walking

The Exploded View of the Lower Limb Foot Prosthesis

The Assembly Drawing of the Lower Leg Prosthesis

Model Preparation. (a) Simplification of the model; (b) Model with meshes; 3) Meshed model with boundary conditions

von Mises Stress of the device; (a) von Mises stress of the-whole device; (b) top view of the socket

Conclusions

The objective of this project was to design a device that can help people in low resourced communities ride bicycles and gain employment opportunities in western Kenya. The device should be useful and safe, be inexpensive, easy to maintain, have a long lifespan, be durable, and easy to attach to bicycle pedals. The prosthetic device was designed through SolidWorks based on the customer needs and engineering requirements evaluated with the FMEA method. Under a load condition of 550N in FEA simulations, the maximum von Mises stress and strain of the device was 1.32 MPa and on the order of 10e-4 respectively, which were low and indicated that the device was durable and was able to support the design load conditions. The factor of safety was greater than 5, which is large enough for the device and will ensure a long lifespan. The bungee cord is easy to be maintained and was designed to transfer the loads from the leg to the foot. The Velcro structure was designed to make the device easy to attach to the bicycle pedal. The steel or aluminum alloy were inexpensive and were selected as the material of the device to control the total cost and ensure it remains under $200 CAD.

Factor of Safety Plot

Co-Authors: Kewei Bian, Lihong Lu, Zhixuan Zhao

MME9640 Medical Devices Final Paper Formatted Group 3-KW.pdf

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse