Investigation of Metatarsal Fracture for Protective Footwear Design

跖骨（脚的上部）受伤在工业环境中很常见。大多数伤害是由于沉重的重量落在脚上造成的冲击，或由于脚在工业车辆（如叉车）下被压伤。目前正在设计保护鞋，以保护跖骨免受这种伤害。**全球每年约售出20万个跖骨保护器，其中约25%由总部位于滑铁卢的Swenco公司生产**。然而，目前由**Swenco生产的跖骨保护器在设计时没有提供实际保护的信息。他们的设计要求完全基于ASTM标准，并没有反映实际的伤害情况。例如，目前尚不清楚需要多少撞击能量才能使跖骨骨折。没有这些信息，Swenco无法**设计跖骨保护器来提供足够的保护。该项目的目标是研究在冲击和挤压载荷情况下跖骨骨折所需的能量。**将测试16只新鲜冷冻尸体的脚；8次冲击，8次准静态加载。将使用仪器定制测试设备对尸体足部施加准静态压缩载荷，并确定跖骨骨折所需的最小力。x线片将用于确定跖骨骨折。将使用改进的摆锤冲击试验机，以扁杆作为压头，以不同的冲击能量对脚进行冲击。使用这种方法，将生成一个将**跖骨骨折风险与撞击能量联系起来的损伤风险曲线。**从测试中收集的信息将对工业合作伙伴设计基于实验数据的新一代**跖骨保护器非常有价值。这样的跖骨被设计为**最佳的跖骨保护。这将有助于公司更好地推销他们的产品，从而为加拿大带来经济效益。

Injuries to metatarsals (top part of the foot) are common in industrial settings. Most of the injuries are due to**impact caused due to heavy weight falling on the foot, or due to foot being crushed under industrial vehicles**such as forklifts. Protective footwear are being designed to protect the metatarsals from such injury.**About 200,000 metatarsal protectors are being sold every year throughout the world and about 25% of these are**produced by Swenco, a Waterloo based company. However, the metatarsal protectors currently produced by**Swenco are designed with no information on actual protection they need to offer. Their design requirement is**purely based on ASTM standards that do not reflect the actual injury scenario. For example, it is not known**how much impact energy is needed to fracture the metatarsals. Without such information, Swenco cannot**design metatarsal protectors to offer sufficient protection. The goal of this project is to investigate the energy**needed to fracture metatarsal bones under impact and crush loading scenarios.**Sixteen fresh frozen cadaver feet will be tested; 8 in impact and 8 under quasistatic loading. A instrumented**custom test apparatus will be used to apply quasi-static compressive loading on top of cadaver foot and**minimal force needed for metatarsal fractures will be determined. Radiographs will be used to ascertain the**metatarsal fractures. A modified swing pendulum impact tester will be used to impact the feet at different**impact energies using flat bar as an indenter. Using this approach an injury risk curve that relates the risk of**metatarsal fracture to impact energy will be generated.**The information gathered from the tests will be very valuable for the industrial partner to design net generation**metatarsal protectors which are based on the experimental data. Such metatarsals are expected to be designed**for optimal metatarsal protection. This will help the company to market their product better resulting economic**benefit to Canada.