A Computational Comparison of Composite Laminated Sockets with 3D Printed Socket Variants: Analysis of Stress

摘要

There is a variance in fabrication materials used by clinicians in orthotics and prosthetics socket care nationwide. Commonly used clinical socket materials are comprised of reinforced carbon fiber hardened with epoxy resin. Material composition and thickness is subjective to each clinician's valued opinion. With the increasing popularity of 3D printing, there is high interest in fused deposition modeling (FDM) materials for prosthetic care. While 3D printing brings simplicity and customization to the manufacturing process, there is little known about ideal properties, stress propagation, and design optimization for FDM-printed sockets. Clinicians often take a trial-and-error approach for printed socket design without understanding stress and material performance as altered by the FDM process. Therefore, the. objective of the current study is to compare the mechanical behavior of common clinical socket materials to identically dimensioned FDM sockets under a specified loading case. It is hypothesized that a finite element analysis will show lower structural integrity in FDM materials.