Experimental Testing of the Hybrid III Lower Extremity for Computational Model Development

Experimental testing was performed to provide input data for a new, multi-body computer model of the Hybrid III lower extremity, with the 30 degree dorsiflexion ankle. The leg was disassembled into its components to mass, geometric, and inertial properties for each segment. Stiffness and damping coefficients were measured for the hip, leg, foot, and ankle. Joint rotational and translational properties were measured for the knee and ankle. To characterize interactions of the foot with the footwell, flexion and compression tests of the foot were conducted. The lower extremity was segmented at the joint and load cell locations, to permit rigid body dynamics codes to compute the forces at these locations for comparison to test data and for calculation of injury criteria.