ABSTRACT
The foot acts as a shock absorber upon contact with the ground. Repetitive impact on the foot is considered one of the main etiological agents in foot pain and problems. Footwear or foot support designed for shock absorption has been identified as one of the important strategies for prevention of foot/ankle injuries. Simulations of foot impact are necessary for a better understanding of foot support design. This chapter reviews experimental and computational methods of existing investigations on foot impact and introduces implicit dynamic finite element (FE) methods. As an example of potential applications of such an implicit dynamic model for prevention of heel pain, results of the dynamic FE foot model during heel strike are presented.
