Abstract
The foot joint has the great mechanisms. One of significant parts of this mechanism was arch structure. However, the function of it has been remain unclear. To elucidation of this point , it seems to be required the engineering research. In this paper, we compared the foot arch structures of normal and flat foot by the photoelasticity method. We measured the change of the height. We also analyzed the influence of this change on the tendon using 3-dimensional stress freezing method. In first experiment, we compared them using skeletal model, which is known to be a fundamental stress model on the foot joint. Next, in order to compare the results by skeletal model, we made an experiment using reconstructed skeletal muscle and tendon model. According to these experiments, we estimated a stress distribution map of foot. In skeletal foot model, the stress on calcaneus was observed on outside in flat foot compared with normal foot at the ground landing. This difference between normal and flat foot was decrease in the reconstructed skeletal muscle and tendon model. This result suggests the improvement of the tendon function is effective to recover symptoms.
