Master's student Alaq Saad Hussein - Prothesis and Orthosis Engineering Department her thesis tagged:

Design of Experiment for Optimal Heel Shoe Worn with Below Knee Prosthesis

The discussion took place on Sunday 17/9/2023 in the hall Biomedical Engineering Department. The discussion committee was chaired by Prof. Dr. Ayad Murad Takak / Al-Nahrain University and the membership of all Assistant Professor Dr. Ahmed Zidan Muhammed / University of Baghdad and Assistant Professor Dr. Dunia Abdulsahib Hashim / College of Engineering / Al-Nahrain University. The thesis was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Mahmud Rashid Ismail / College of Engineering/ Al-Nahrain University.

Walking causes impact peaks at humans' feet at high rates and magnitudes of loading are present because of the repeated impact forces placed beneath the heel. The momentum exchange between the ground and the effective mass causes impact peaks. Or the section of the body that stops moving entirely during the impact peak. This can be influenced by various parties' interchange

of momentum, including stiffness of heel shoes. This work presents and evaluates a shoe heels design to predict the optimal one for transtibial amputee walkers. An adult male human subject with transtibial amputation was tested with this model by walking in fifteen designs of heels shoe suggested by the Minitab program using response surface methodology. The kinetic and kinematic data were collected using an AMTI force plate and video camera, respectively. The optimal Design of the Experiment (DOE) is carried out with Minitab software to suggest the best shoe heel design (according to material and geometry) to minimize impact effect. ANOVA and statistical results show that heel height has a predominant effect on impact compared to elastic modulus and cross-sectional area. The Optimization results based on response surface design suggest a heel with a modulus of elasticity (0.80) N/mm2, area (47.4172) cm2, and height (1.2348) cm for the lowest effective mass of impact, leading to improve the gait of the subject. ANOVA analysis of the effect of

parameters of the shoe indicates the predominant effect on heel stiffness is the shoe height.

The thesis was accepted as it fulfilled the requirements for obtaining a master's degree, with an excellent grade.