12. Considerations in Biomechanical Testing

Justin Dawn, engineering diploma in hand, was hired to work in the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory at Mega General Hospital shortly after Sanza Time was admitted with the broken femoral rod. Having seen such broken rods too many times in her long career, the chief orthopaedic surgeon at Mega General asked the staff of the research laboratory to design a stronger rod. In order to design such a device, the staff immediately recognized that some notion of the strains incurred by the current rod would have to be taken into account. Justin’s first project was thus to determine what such strains might be during normal walking. How would Justin go about doing this?