Analysis of Stair Climbing to Find an Optimum Knee Angle in Order to Reduce the Chances of Leg Muscle Fatigue and Injuries

Stair climbing is one of the unique exercises which is frequently used and helps in maintaining the leg muscles active and healthy. However, if the height of the stair is not optimum, it may cause serious injuries due to increased or decreased knee angle that may damage the human leg muscles such as quadriceps and hamstring involved in its proper function. A stair climbing leg model PASCO ME-7001 was designed to find an optimum knee angle for reducing the maximum chances of leg muscle fatigue and injuries by using the force sensors. Resultant forces applied on leg muscles i.e. hamstring and quadriceps at 4 different average angles: 40º, 57º, 68º, and 76º for four different stair heights: 3", 5", 7", and 9" respectively were studied graphically during ascending stairs. Also, the energy consumption of quadriceps is calculated for the desired 4 average angles. The optimum knee angle maybe 57-68 degrees at 5"-7" stair height for both flexion and extension of the leg during stair climbing.

Mathematical Study for Stagnation Point Flows of Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Fluids

Non-Newtonian °uids feature in an extensive range of industrial and technological applica- tions including polymer processing, biotechnology, lubrication of aerospace and automotive vehicles and Nuclear thermo-hydraulics. Moreover, oblique stagnation point °ows have at- tracted some attention in recent years as they generalize the models used by engineers to include all possible angle of impingement of industrial °ows on solid surfaces. Motivated by simulating non-Newtonian multi-physical transport phenomena, the present thesis is devoted to the mathematical modeling, computation and subsequent physical analysis for non-orthogonal stagnation °ow of various type of °uid models namely Casson °uid model, Je®rey °uid model and Oldroyd-B °uid model which is a generalization of the upper con- vected Maxwell model. The governing equations for mass, linear momentum, heat (en- ergy) and concentration are modeled and then transformed by using applicable similarity conversions. The emerging strongly coupled nonlinear non-dimensional boundary value problems are solved with robust well-tested Runge-Kutta Fehlberg numerical quadrature and a shooting technique with tolerance level of 10¡5 and Keller box method, validation with Adomian decomposition method is also included. Comparison with the previous ex- isting published literature is also made and a very good agreement between the results is observed for limiting case. An extensive parametric study has been conducted to evaluate heat, momentum and concentration characteristics for the aforementioned °uid models. Mathematical modeling of these non-Newtonian models is presented with various physical e®ects such as mixed convection, thermal radiation, MHD, homogeneous-heterogeneous reactions and incorporation of nano°uids and micro-organisms. Results for physical quan- tities such as local skin friction, local Nusselt number and Sherwood number are depicted through graphs and tabular form. The obtained graphical results are discussed physically in a lucid manner. The result provides interesting insights into certain nuclear reactor x transport phenomena and furthermore a benchmark for more general CFD simulations. The present work retain signi¯cant validity in actual coating °ows and generalizes the conventional orthogonal case to the industrially relevant scenario of oblique °ow.