Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
  • Publication
    Convergence study of global meshing on enamel-cement-bracket finite element model
    ( 2017-09-26)
    Syafiq Farhan Samshuri
    ;
    ; ; ;
    Abdullah A.B.
    ;
    Ahmad Kamal Ariffin
    This paper presents on meshing convergence analysis of finite element (FE) model to simulate enamel-cement-bracket fracture. Three different materials used in this study involving interface fracture are concerned. Complex behavior ofinterface fracture due to stress concentration is the reason to have a well-constructed meshing strategy. In FE analysis, meshing size is a critical factor that influenced the accuracy and computational time of analysis. The convergence study meshing scheme involving critical area (CA) and non-critical area (NCA) to ensure an optimum meshing sizes are acquired for this FE model. For NCA meshing, the area of interest are at the back of enamel, bracket ligature groove and bracket wing. For CA meshing, area of interest are enamel area close to cement layer, the cement layer and bracket base. The value of constant NCA meshing tested are meshing size 1 and 0.4. The value constant CA meshing tested are 0.4 and 0.1. Manipulative variables are randomly selected and must abide the rule of NCA must be higher than CA. This study employed first principle stresses due to brittle failure nature of the materials used. Best meshing size are selected according to convergence error analysis. Results show that, constant CA are more stable compare to constant NCA meshing. Then, 0.05 constant CA meshing are tested to test the accuracy of smaller meshing. However, unpromising result obtained as the errors are increasing. Thus, constant CA 0.1 with NCA mesh of 0.15 until 0.3 are the most stable meshing as the error in this region are lowest. Convergence test was conducted on three selected coarse, medium and fine meshes at the range of NCA mesh of 0.15 until 3 and CA mesh area stay constant at 0.1. The result shows that, at coarse mesh 0.3, the error are 0.0003% compare to 3% acceptable error. Hence, the global meshing are converge as the meshing size at CA 0.1 and NCA 0.15 for this model.
  • Publication
    Effects of fibre loading and moisture absorption on the tensile properties of hybrid Napier/glass/epoxy composites
    The primary objective of this study was to investigate the effect of moisture absorption on the mechanical degradation of hybrid Napier/glass-epoxy composites. The hybrid Napier/glass-epoxy composites plates were produced by the vacuum infusion method using epoxy resin as a matrix. The hybrid composite specimens were tested after following 50 h of water immersion. The moisture content decreased as the glass fibre content increased. The wet and dry hybrid composite samples were subjected to tensile tests. The incorporation of the glass fibre into the Napier grass fibre-epoxy composites enhanced their tensile strength and tensile modulus. The tensile strength and tensile modulus of the hybrid Napier/glass-epoxy composites (24/6-70 vol%) were 43 MPa and 3.2 GPa, respectively. However, the tensile strength and tensile modulus properties highly degraded under wet conditions.
  • Publication
    Lower extremity joint reaction forces and plantar fascia strain responses due to incline and decline walking
    ( 2021-01-01)
    Noor Arifah Azwani Abdul Yamin
    ;
    ; ;
    Ahmad Faizal Salleh
    ;
    ;
    Purpose: The present study aims to investigate the effect of incline and decline walking on ground and joint reaction forces (JRF) of lower extremity and plantar fascia strain (PFS) under certain surface inclination angles. Methods: Twenty-three male subjects walked on a customized platform with four different surface inclinations (i.e., 0°, 5°,7.5° and 10°) with inclined and declined directions. The motion of the ten reflective markers was captured using Qualysis motion capture system (Qualysis, Gothenburg, Sweden) and exported to a visual three-dimensional (3D) software (C-motion, Germantown, USA) in order to analyze the GRF, JRF and PFS. Results: The results found that the peak vertical GRF is almost consistent for 0° and 5° inclination slope but started to decrease at 7.5° onwards during decline walking. The most affected JRF was found on knee at medial-lateral direction even as low as 5°, to 10° inclination for both walking conditions. Furthermore, the findings also show that the JRF of lower extremity was more affected during declined walking compared to inclined walking based on the number of significant differences observed in each inclination angle. The PFS was found increased with the increase of surface inclination. Conclusions: The findings could provide a new insight on the relationship of joint reaction forces and strain parameter in response to the incline and decline walking. It would benefit in providing a better precaution that should be considered during hiking activity, especially in medial-lateral direction in order to prevent injury or fall risk.
      4
  • Publication
    Development of synthetic spine for biomechanical research: An overview
    Human and animal cadaveric spines are the most common specimens used in biomechanical investigations. However, biological cadaveric spines come with a lot of disadvantages, which resulted in questionable reliability of the data obtained. This motivated the authors to look at the development of a working synthetic spine in motion segments because synthetic materials have been used widely to replace the cadaveric specimens especially for bone testing. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the current development of a working synthetic spine and why it is crucial to consider synthetic spine as another alternative specimens to replace human and animal cadaveric spines for biomechanical research. The development of synthetic spines studies in recent years showed a great potential to replicate the human cadaveric spine. Although some of the motions were quite stiff in comparison with human cadaveric motions, with further adjustment, the improved synthetic spine can potentially benefit and transform the spinal biomechanical investigations in the future.
      4
  • Publication
    Performance analysis of diabetic retinopathy detection using fuzzy entropy multi-level thresholding
    ( 2023-07-01)
    Qaid M.S.A.
    ;
    ;
    Yazid H.
    ;
    ; ;
    Ali Hassan M.K.
    Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is one of the major causes of blindness. Many DR detection systems were developed to segment and determine the type and number of lesions that appeared on retinal images and used to classify DR and its severity level. Even though several researchers have already proposed many automated diagnosis systems with different image segmentation algorithms, their accuracy and reliability are generally unexplored. The accuracy of an automated diagnosis system usually depends on the segmentation techniques. The accuracy of this system is heavily dependent upon the retinal and image parameters, which have intensity level difference between background (BG)-blood vessels (BV), BV-bright lesions, BV-dark lesions, and noise levels. In this work, the automated diagnosis system accuracy has been analysed to successfully detect DR and its severity levels. The focus is on fundus image modalities segmentation based on fuzzy entropy multi-level thresholding. The analysis aimed to develop conditions to guarantee accurate DR detection and its severity level. Firstly, a retinal image model was developed that represents the retina under the variation of all retinal and image parameters. Overall, 45,000 images were developed using the retinal model. Secondly, feasibility and consistency analysis were performed based on a specific design Monte Carlo statistical method to quantify the successful detection of DR and its severity levels. The conditions to guarantee accurate DR detections are: BG to BV > 30% and BV to the dark lesions (MAs) >15% for mild DR, BG to BV > 40% and BV to the dark lesions (MAs and HEM) > 20% for moderate DR, and BG to BV > 30% and BV to the dark lesions (MAs and HEM) > 15%, and BV to the bright lesions (EX) > 55% for severe DR. Finally, the validity of these conditions was verified by comparing their accuracy against real retinal images from publicly available datasets. The verification results demonstrated that the condition for the analysis could be used to predict the success of DR detection.
      2
  • Publication
    Effect of chewing and cutting condition for V-shape three-dimensional titanium miniplate for fixation of mandibular angle fractures (MAFs)
    ( 2020-07-24)
    Daud R.
    ;
    Wenzhao X.
    ;
    Ibrahim I.
    ;
    ; ;
    Mat F.
    ;
    Ismail R.
    Purpose: Miniplate shapes determine the fixation stability to promote best healing and osseointegration process of mandibular fracture. In clinical treatment, the common method used two straight-type miniplate or I-shape miniplate; sometimes this method is not stable enough or limited by the fracture geometry and caused high risk of failure due to screw loosening. This paper aims to investigate a new type of miniplate called V-shape miniplate design as an alternative to the standard straight plate based on total displacement, von Mises stress, stress transfer parameter (STP) and strain energy density transfer parameters (SEDPTs) for two types of bite force condition, which is cutting and chewing condition. Design/methodology/approach: The 3D fixation models were constructed and the finite element (FE) simulation is based on the two-bite force load that ranges from 50 to 700 N based on cutting and chewing bite force condition using ANSYS Workbench 19.2. Findings: In result comparison, the maximum loading of the V-shape miniplate can reduce deformation by 5.9%, reduce stress by 0.58% reduce strain by 8.1% in cutting condition while reducing deformation by 6.43%, reduce stress by 15.25%, reduce strain by 10.1% in chewing condition. To assess the stress transfer behavior of miniplates fixations to the mandibular bone, the STP and SEDPT were evaluated at the normal cortex screw and the locking head screw. In the simulation, the locking head screw is vertical to the bone structure while the cortex screw is 95 degrees to the bone structure, as a result, the STP value for locking head screw is 1.0073 while in cortex screw is 0.7408. Research limitations/implications: Meanwhile, the SEDPT value for locking head screw is 2.7574 and 1.8412 for cortex screw. Practical implications: Clinically, V-shape miniplate has shown factual data that can be used for prototyping. STP and SEDTP values provide evidence of how fixation stability is better than I-shape miniplate. Originality/value: In conclusion, the newly designed V-shape miniplate has overall better stability than the standard I-shape miniplate, and the locking head screw has the STP value closer to 1 than the standard cortex screw; it means the locking screw is better in reducing the stress shielding.
      4
  • Publication
    Holonomic Mobile Robot Planners: Performance Analysis
    ( 2022-01-01)
    Aljamali Y.S.
    ;
    ; ;
    Yazid H.
    ;
    Basha S.N.
    ;
    ;
    Hassan M.K.A.
    Many algorithms have been proposed to tackle the path planning problem in mobile robots. Among the well-known and established algorithms are the Probabilistic Road Map (PRM) algorithm, A* algorithm, Genetic algorithm (GA), Rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT), and dual Rapidly-exploring random trees (RRT-connect). Hence, this paper will focus on the performance comparison between the aforementioned algorithms concerning computation time, path length, and fail and success rate for producing a path. For the sake of fair and conclusive results, simulation is conducted in two phases with four different environments, namely, free space environment, low cluttered environment, medium cluttered environment, and high cluttered environment. The results show that RRT-connect has a high success rate in producing a feasible path with the least computation time. Hence, RRTs-based sampling algorithms, in general, and RRT-connect, in specific, will be explored in-depth for possible optimization.
      2
  • Publication
    Pre- and Post-operative Assessment of Bone with Osteogenesis Imperfecta using Finite Element Analysis: A Review
    Applications of finite element analysis (FEA) to demonstrate the pre-and post-operative conditions of the brittle bone-related disease known as osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) has been widely used in the past and at present. The method used to reconstruct the bone model that resemble the OI bone geometry plays an important aspect to accurately represent the bone condition to provide more alternative ways to evaluate surgical intervention options. Other factors such as material properties and boundary conditions also reflect the results of the analysis. Therefore, the aim of this review paper is to analyse the approaches of previous studies in terms of model geometry construction, selection of materials properties and boundary conditions to enable a deeper understanding and evaluation of bone fractures in OI patients. The biomechanical design of the intramedullary (IM) rods used in post-operative surgery and the interface between IM rods and bone fragments are also discussed in this review paper.
      2
  • Publication
    Effects of Running Surface Stiffness on Three-Segment Foot Kinematics Responses with Different Shod Conditions
    ( 2021-01-01)
    Noor Arifah Azwani Abdul Yamin
    ;
    ;
    Salleh A.F.
    ;
    ;
    Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of surface stiffness on multisegment foot kinematics and temporal parameters during running. Methods. Eighteen male subjects ran on three different surfaces (i.e., concrete, artificial grass, and rubber) in both heeled running shoes (HS) and minimal running shoes (MS). Both these shoes had dissimilar sole profiles. The heeled shoes had a higher sole at the heel, a thick base, and arch support, whereas the minimal shoes had a flat base sole. Indeed, the studied biomechanical parameters responded differently in the different footwear during running. Subjects ran in recreational mode speed while 3D foot kinematics (i.e., joint rotation and peak medial longitudinal arch (MLA) angle) were determined using a motion capture system (Qualysis, Gothenburg, Sweden). Information on stance time and plantar fascia strain (PFS) was also collected. Results. Running on different surface stiffness was found to significantly affect the peak MLA angles and stance times for both HS and MS conditions. However, the results showed that the joint rotation angles were not sensitive to surface stiffness. Also, PFS showed no relationship with surface stiffness, as the results were varied as the surface stiffness was changed. Conclusion. The surface stiffness significantly contributed towards the effects of peak MLA angle and stance time. These findings may enhance the understanding of biomechanical responses on various running surfaces stiffness in different shoe conditions.
      2
  • Publication
    Finite element analysis of proximal femur in sideways fall under quasi-static loading
    Many researchers have investigated femur fractures using 3D models created with finite element (FE) software; however, these models need validation. Cadavers are used in experiments to validate the FE model. Nevertheless, there are several restrictions and obstacles to experimenting on the cadaver femur bone. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of loading direction on the stress distribution and fracture risk of a proximal femur bone under quasi-static loading in a sideways fall condition. A validated 3D FE model of the proximal femur was developed by employing the results obtained from a quasi-static experimental test. Instead of cadaver, 3D-printed proximal femur bone was used. Various fall loading configurations were used to simulate a sideways fall with inclination angles from 0° to 20° and rotational angles from −15° to 15°. The highest von Mises stress is due to sideways falls distributed in the femur neck region. This study provides new information on FE model construction and medical FE analysis.
      2