Evaluation of nasal guard for sports activities: finite element analysis [ / Avaliação de protetor nasal para atividades desportivas: análise por elementos finitos

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of facial fractures in sports activities. As the nasal bone is in the weakness zone of the face, is one of the most affected by sports accidents. One of the solutions to avoid fracture or refracture is to use a nose guard when practicing sports. Up to date there is no standardization in relation to the manufacture of nasal guards for sports. Moreover, there is no systematic study evaluating the design and combination of materials in nasal guards. The hypothesis of this work is that effective protection is achieved with nasal guards made of a two-millimeter flexible sheet of EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) overlaid by an one-millimeter layer of rigid EVA(here called P1). To verify this hypothesis a study was accomplished through finite element analysis. The flexible EVA is a hyperelastic material, which follows Ogdens model, while the rigid EVA follows Von Mises´ model. In order to use these models, several constants had to be determined with the aid of mechanical compression tests. For soft tissue (Ogden model) and bones (linear elastic model) the necessary constants were obtained from literature. Once determined the constants for all considered materials, it was possible to compare the efficiency of the proposed nasal guard with a more complex geometry model, representative of reality, achieved by scans and tomography. In order to obtain virtual finite element response that mimitate the real impact situation, the analyses were necessarily non-linear and dynamic. The results showed that the hypothesis was confirmed, the P1 nasal guard was effective for the protection of the nasal bones.

ASSUNTO(S)

trauma in sports traumatismo nos esportes proteção nos esportes guard protetor protection in sports

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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