Development of a Human Finger Model with the CAE Software SIMPACK

Abstract

This thesis concerns the development of a biomechanical model of the middle finger with the commercial software SIMPACK. This multi-body system consists of the following components: Four bones, three joints, six muscles and six ligaments. In order to describe the morphology of the joints und thus the finger kinematics a three-dimensional contact model is used. The contact surfaces are extracted from CT images of a human hand and exported to the simulation software using a polygonal representation. In addition, new user elements are developed in SIMPACK to realise the multi-attachment of the extrinsic hand muscles along the finger. The complete multi-body simulation is performed without any constraints. After conducting the static equilibrium calculations, the free movement of the finger is investigated by single activation of the muscles and a final validation between the simulated and real joint movement is provided. The movement data, which is captured from the real hand with the optical tracking system VICON, is matched to the simulation and the position and angle residuals are calculated. The validation is focused on both interphalangeal joints of the middle finger. It is concluded that multi-body simulations represent an effective method to conduct kinematic simulations of human finger joints.