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clinical biomechanics
P.A. Payne
Department of Instrumentation and Analytical Science, UMIST, P.O. Box 88, Manchester, M60
IQD, UK
Presented at the 28th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Biological Engineering Society,
Salford, UK, 7-9 September 1988
ABSTRACT
Successful measurements in anyJield are dependent on the availability of appropriate transducer materials and the associated
instrumentation. In recentyears there has been a most welcome advance in both these areas. If we consider&t the transducer
developments that have recently taken place, these have much to do with the discovery and application of new materials such as
electroactive polymers, jibre optic devices and many others. Instrumentation has largely benejitted from the microelectronics
revolution. Our ability to process and ultimately display data has improved to a remarkable extent. Indeed, the designer of
instrumentation is under enormous pressure to convert the data into the digital domain as early as possible simply because the
resulting instrument will usually be easier to design and construct, more accurate, more reliable, smaller and possibly more
important still, cheaper. This paper reviews some of these developments, gives a number of examples of applications in the
clinical biomechanics area and makes some predictions for future developments.
Dispacement
(a) Low mechanical impedance types Resistive Potentiometer (rotational and linear)
Capacitive Change in capacitance
Inductive Change in inductance
Transformer AC excited differential transformer
Electromagnetic Movement of coil through a magnetic field (no DC response)
Optical Moire fringe; interferometry; reflection change
Ultrasonic Pulse transit time
(b) Higher mechanical impedance types Piezoresistance Very small displacements
Mechanoresistance Metal foil and wire strain gauge; mercury gauge
Velocity Magnetic induction Moving coil (gives output proportional to velocity)
Doppler effect Ultrasonic/optical electromagnetic frequency change
Accrleration F=ma Measurement of the force due to the movement of a known mass (e.g.
using piezoelectric, magnetostrictive or mechanoresistive transducers)
Pressure Elastic displacement Diaphragm deflection (Bourdon tube, bellows, etc.) measured with a
displacement transducer
Force balance Manometer; electromagnetic force balance
Table 3 Transmit and receive efficiency parameters for various strutted with simple photolithography. No particu-
piezoelectric materials lar steps need to be taken to reduce inter-element
coupling because the material is inherently lossy at
ultrasonic frequencies.
PVDF has also found a role in making pressure
Quartz 1.0 1.0 1.0
measurements under the foot13,14, an application in
PZT5A 70.0 0.2 1 14.6
LiNbO, 2.8 0.54 1.51 which its ability to deform easily is a major advan-
PVDF (biaxial) 6.9 1.35 9.3 tage. Another intriguing application is in using
VDF-TrFE 7.4 1.89 14.0 PVDF to help mimic the skin’s ability to sense
Poly-blend - - 17.1 contact pressure15. Again, the advanced forms of
polymer piezoelectric material will also give rise to
No dimensions are quoted for this tabulated data, instead all
parameters are related to a quartz standard
improvement in these applications. It should be
added that much further work is necessary in order
to understand how some of the effects giving rise to
developed polymer blend materials are beginning high piezoelectric activity come about. This may not
to come close to an ideal ultrasound transducer appear so important to the potential user of the
material. This direction of research may well reveal material until it is realized that from such an under-
even better materials in due course. standing may come ways of further improving the
Much has been written on the subject of com- performance of transducers fabricated from these
parisons between conventiona ceramics (e.g. PZT5) materials.
and polymer materials. Numerous performance
indices are used to support the prejudices of particu- Fibre optic transducers
lar authors, but in this context the critical criterion is A new communications industry has grown up
the go-and-return performance of the material in a worldwide based upon the exploitation of optical
standard transducer configuration. Comparative fibres as light waveguides. This has been so successful
measures of performance” of this form have been that the cost of both silica and polymer based fibres
used. They have proved to be simple, rapid and has fallen greatly. This has allowed the measurement
useful in developing and exploring the performance scientist to seriously suggest a wide variety of appli-
of new materials. A performance index that explores cations of these devices. A few of these have become
the go-and-return aspects of piezoelectric materials commercially available.
has been suggested by Callerane et al.” and is There are two main approaches in the use of
discussed by Silk ‘*. Silk sugg es t s t hat the Callerane optical fibres for making measurements. In one
approach is more valid for the comparison of per- approach the fibre is simply used as a means of
formance between materials of fundamentally dif- guiding light energy to the end of the fibre where a
ferent characteristics. The Callerane et al.” transduction process takes place. In the other ap-
performance index Yr Y, is given by: proach the intrinsic properties of the fibre are ex-
Y,Y, = -.-
x: t ploited, perhaps over a long distance, giving rise to a
distributed measurement. In either case, the reasons
l-K2 ‘9
I c33 for using optical fibres are essentially the same. The
where Yr is a transmit efficiency parameter, Y, a material itself is low cost, light in weight and can be
receive efficiency parameter, K, the electro- of very small dimensions (a few micrometres in
mechanical coupling efficiency (longitudinal wave), diameter). However, the most compelling reason is
cj; ultrasonic velocity at constant displacement and t their almost complete immunity to interference from
the material thickness. As Silk points out, some of the electromagnetic radiation. Additionally, they will
results of using such a performance comparison are also link in well to an optical communication or
surprising. Table 3 extracts some figures from refer- computation systemt6.
ence 12 and compares these with figures for Y, Y, Optical fibres have been exploited for physical17,
for the more recent copolymers and polymer blends. chemicalI and biochemical’g measurements. These
Analysis of these figures shows that PZT5A is are all areas of some interest in biomechanics. Con-
outstanding as a transmitting material, but less good siderable effort has gone into temperature measure-
as a receiver; PVDF is a poor transmitter, but good ment systems based on some form of interferometer
in the receive mode; VDF-TrFE approaches PZT5A method. These may be of interest where an invasive
on the basis of Yr Y, and polymer blend materials measurement of local temperature is required. Pres-
are the best. sure sensing can also be achieved on a miniature
These data and comparisons suggest that a major scale. This may also be exploitable for invasive
change in the approach to ultrasound probe design measurements. In the area of chemical measure-
may be imminent. Considerable advantages accrue ments considerable efforts have gone into measuring
from the use of polymer materials for both single dissolved gases. Transducers for pH (ref. 20) PO, and
element and multi-element devices. No matching PcO? (ref. 22) have been developed. Many of these
layers are required due to the low acoustic imped- have application in bio-mechanics. Due to their
ance value of these materials. They are compliant small size, robust construction and low cost, they
and can be readily fashioned into shapes not possible may eventually become the transducer of choice in
for ceramics. They can be produced in very thin measurements of blood and tissue gases. Further
sheet form to provide a basis for very high frequency work on the bio-compatibility of these devices will
devices. Finally, multi-element devices can be con- have to be carried out if they are to be used for long-
new approaches to measurements in biomechanics 15. De Rossi D, Domenici C, Lazzeri L, Nannini A. A new skin-
can be anticipated. Some of these have been dis- like sensor for contact stress measurement in biomechanics.
cussed in this paper, but many others exist or will Proc 28th Ann Sci Meeting on Clinical Applications of Biomechan-
its, Salford, UK, 1988 (abstract).
come about. Without doubt there is an exciting
16. Usher MJ. Sensors and Transducers. Basingstoke: Macmillan,
period of activity ahead.
1985: 121-5.
17. Jones JDC, Jackson DA. Research advances in fibre optic
interferometric and polarimetric sensors. Laser Focus
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