Stress and Displacement Propagation Analysis of Lumbar L4 Vertebrae for Prosthesis Design

Spine plays an important role to facilitate mobility in humans. It has four distinct parts such as cervical, thoracic, lumbar and coccyx which have respective role to play. The lumbar part of the spine is responsible to bear the torso load. This part of the spine is subjected to maximum load. In the present paper, lumbar vertebrae number 4 has been considered for stress analysis and displacement analysis. The stress distribution profile indicates the maximum and minimum stressed part for a given amount of load. The modelling of the L4 vertebrae has been done with Blender, and analysis has been done using Abaqus. The output of this has helped us that the lumbar vertebrae is subjected to dynamic load not only during walking or running but also during standing, sitting and bending. From the results, we have identified that annulus of L4 vertebrae is subjected to maximum stress and anterior annulus is subjected to maximum displacement during normal standing position of a human. The research outcome will help in effective design of spine prosthesis.