Effects of Walking Speed on Net Muscle Moments and Contact Forces at the Knee

PURPOSE: To quantify the magnitudes and changes in NMM and JCF during slow and fast walking. METHODS: We collected kinematic and kinetic data as ten subjects (mass = 63.5 (11.0) kg, mean (SD)) walked on a dual-belt force measuring treadmill at 0.75 m/s 1.50 m/s. An OpenSim three-dimensional musculoskeletal model with 23 degrees of freedom and 92 muscles was scaled to each subject. RESULTS: The peak extensor NMM at the knee increased ~140% from 0.30 (0.23) Nm/kg to 0.7 (0.21) Nm/kg and the peak flexor NMM increased ~50% from 0.38 (0.14) Nm/kg to 0.58 (0.07) Nm/kg as walking speed was increased from 0.75 m/s to 1.50 m/s, (p