Mechanical Analysis of Foot Plantar Fascia in Normal Walking Condition

摘要

Foot plantar fascia is a kind of important tissue in stabilizing the longitudinal arch of human foot.Direct measurement to monitoring the mechanical situation of plantar fascia at human locomotion is very difficult.The purpose of this study is to construct a three-dimensional finite element model of the foot to calculate the internal stress/strain value of plantar fascia during different stages of the gait.The simulated stress distribution of plantar fascia was the lowest at heel-strike,which concentrated on the medial side of calcaneal tubercle.The peak stress of plantar fascia was appeared at push-off,and the value was more than 5 times of the heel-strike position.Current FE model was able to explore the plantar fascia tension trend at the main subphases of the foot.More detailed fascia models and intrinsic muscle forces could be developed in the further study.