Design Analysis of Variable Damping Mechanism Using Magnetorheological Fluids for Adaptive Prosthetic Foot

Abstract

The applications of Magnetorheological (MR) fluids to act as mechanical dampers are new and increasing day by day. This paper proves to be an attempt in applying variable damping properties of a MR fluid in a new application of adaptive variable damper prosthetic foot. A 3-D model of the prosthetic foot was developed on the software Autodesk Inventor Professional 2011. Design analysis of prosthetic foot was carried out and damping coefficients were calculated with the help of Dynamic Simulation Environment of Inventor. Typical specification of MR fluid was suggested to act as damper for the prosthetic foot.