NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF HEEL-SHOE INTERACTION IN RUNNING

Abstract

Human heel sensitivity to mechanical loading, which is associated with the strain/stress state around the sensory receptors, is an important body function for sport, exercise and other daily activities (Lake & lafortune, 1998; Patritti, 2002). The sensory receptors within the heel transmit the mechanical signals (e.g. strains) into neural signals and enable human body to sense and adapt to changes of external loadings. To improve the understanding of the mechanics of this process, a realistic numerical model was developed in this work to establish quantitative relationships between the external loads and the state of stresses/strains at sensory receptor locations in running.