FORCES AT THE ELBOW PERFORMING COMMON EVERY DAY ACTIVITIES

INTRODUCTION The correct design of a prosthesis has to take into account mechanical strength and structures lightness. In this process, the knowledge of the forces acting on the structures in exercise plays a key role. The estimation of joints forces during a particular task is not always a trivial problem due to many factors including uncertainties in many parameters. Moreover to validate prosthesis it is not sufficient to calculate global segment forces but it is essential to estimate the actual forces exchanged in each component of the system. In this case it is essential to estimate the bone-to-bone forces at the elbow, which depends on the action of many muscles. Of course the muscles force, in general, depend on the limb configuration as well as on the external forces [1]. Finally the muscle system constitutes a static indeterminate system and so some assumption must be performed to estimate the forces. In this paper we present a preliminary study for the calculation of the forces that may arise at the elbow performing common every day activities. The forces are calculated tacking in account the principal muscles of the arm and considering the variation of their moment arms due to limb configuration.