Designing and manufacturing a flexible heel of a printed prosthetic foot for rehabilitation

Abstract The prosthetic feet available in the market are characterized by high costs and are made of carbon fiber materials, fiberglass, or silicone-coated wood. This study aims to design and manufacture a prosthetic foot to enhance biomechanical performance and user comfort and mimic the natural movement of the human foot; the foot will be designed and manufactured from low-cost materials, namely carbon fiber filaments, using 3D printer technology. The practical part consists of tensile, fatigue tests, and manufacturing the foot using a 3D printer. In this study, the ANSYS program will also analyze the designed model numerically to determine the stresses generated when applying the assumed body weight to the foot model. The results showed that the model is successful in terms of design and does not suffer any mechanical failure during use, in addition to the success of the selection of the material used in the manufacturing process due to its mechanical properties, where the yield stress value = 36.4 MPa, the ultimate stress value = 58.39 Mpa and Young's modulus = 1.23 GPa.