<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><italic>Study aim: </italic>Interactions between the fingers and a handle can be analyzed using a finite element finger model. Hence, the biomechanical response of a hybrid human finger model during contact with varying diameter cylindrical handles was investigated numerically in the present study using ABAQUS/CAE.<italic>Materials and methods: </italic>The finite element index finger model consists of three segments: the proximal, middle, and distal phalanges. The finger model comprises skin, bone, subcutaneous tissue and nail. The skin and subcutaneous tissues were assumed to be non-linearly elastic and linearly visco-elastic. The FE model was applied to predict the contact interaction between the fingers and a handle with 10 N, 20 N, 40 N and 50 N grip forces for four different diameter handles (30 mm, 40 mm, 44mm and 50 mm). The model predictions projected the biomechanical response of the finger during the static gripping analysis with 200 incremental steps.<italic>Results: </italic>The simulation results showed that the increase in contact area reduced the maximal compressive stress/strain and also the contact pressure on finger skin. It was hypothesized in this study that the diameter of the handle influences the stress/strain and contact pressure within the soft tissue during the contact interactions.<italic>Conclusions: </italic>The present study may be useful to study the behavior of the finger model under the static gripping of hand-held power tools.</abstract>

Study aim: Interactions between the fingers and a handle can be analyzed using a finite element finger model. Hence, the biomechanical response of a hybrid human finger model during contact with varying diameter cylindrical handles was investigated numerically in the present study using ABAQUS/CAE.Materials and methods: The finite element index finger model consists of three segments: the proximal, middle, and distal phalanges. The finger model comprises skin, bone, subcutaneous tissue and nail. The skin and subcutaneous tissues were assumed to be non-linearly elastic and linearly visco-elastic. The FE model was applied to predict the contact interaction between the fingers and a handle with 10 N, 20 N, 40 N and 50 N grip forces for four different diameter handles (30 mm, 40 mm, 44mm and 50 mm). The model predictions projected the biomechanical response of the finger during the static gripping analysis with 200 incremental steps.Results: The simulation results showed that the increase in contact area reduced the maximal compressive stress/strain and also the contact pressure on finger skin. It was hypothesized in this study that the diameter of the handle influences the stress/strain and contact pressure within the soft tissue during the contact interactions.Conclusions: The present study may be useful to study the behavior of the finger model under the static gripping of hand-held power tools.

Finite element analysis to assess the biomechanical behavior of a finger model gripping handles with different diameters

Biomedical Human Kinetics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Study aim: Interactions between the fingers and a handle can be analyzed using a finite element finger model. Hence, the biomechanical response of a hybrid...

Finite element analysis to assess the biomechanical behavior of a finger model gripping handles with different diameters

Published Online: Apr 12, 2019

Page range: 69 - 79

Received: Sep 27, 2018

Accepted: Apr 02, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bhk-2019-0009

Keywords
Finger segments, 3D finger model, Finger deformations, Contact pressure, Maximal compressive stress

© 2019 Benedict Jain A.R. Tony et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Finite element analysis to assess the biomechanical behavior of a finger model gripping handles with different diameters

Published Online: Apr 12, 2019

Page range: 69 - 79

Received: Sep 27, 2018

Accepted: Apr 02, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bhk-2019-0009

KeywordsFinger segments, 3D finger model, Finger deformations, Contact pressure, Maximal compressive stress

© 2019 Benedict Jain A.R. Tony et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Finger segments, 3D finger model, Finger deformations, Contact pressure, Maximal compressive stress