Combined mechanical response of advanced porous materials for body support interfaces

车身和外部支撑之间的界面材料在确定车身将承受的机械载荷方面起着重要作用。在身体界面处的密集和长时间的机械负荷（压力、剪切）可导致软组织损伤和慢性伤口，即压力性溃疡，这可影响假肢和矫形器（P&O）的一般领域中的许多患者的生活质量，包括假肢接受腔界面和轮椅使用者的特殊座椅。通常，软弹性体泡沫用作缓冲界面材料，以帮助分布负载并降低可能导致损坏和伤害的压力和剪切水平。该项目将重点关注多孔材料在压力和剪切载荷联合作用下的力学特性，以确定复杂的联合载荷对力学响应的影响，从而将载荷传递到体内的软组织。增材制造（又称3D打印）技术将用于制造具有受控孔几何形状的多孔弹性体材料，以评估对组合机械性能的影响，并为设计更好的界面材料提供信息，以帮助防止组织损伤和损伤。

Project Description Interface materials between the body and external supports play a consequential role in determining the mechanical loading that the body will experience. Intensive and prolonged mechanical loading (pressure, shear) at body interfaces can cause soft tissue damage and chronic wounds, i.e. pressure ulcers, which can affect quality of life for many patients in the general field of prosthetics and orthotics (P&O), including prosthetic socket interfaces and special seating for wheelchair users. Typically, soft elastomer foams are used as cushioning interface materials to help distribute loading and reduce the levels of pressure and shear that can lead to damage and injury. This project will focus on mechanically characterising porous materials under combined pressure and shear loading to determine the effect of complex combined loading on mechanical response, and thus load transfer to soft tissue in the body. Additive manufacturing (a.k.a. 3D printing) techniques will be used to manufacture porous elastomer materials with controlled pore geometry in order to assess the effects on combined mechanical properties and inform the design of better interface materials that can help to prevent tissue damage and injuries.