Computational Biomechanical Framework for Kathak Injury Risk Analysis: Weight Shift Dynamics and Meniscal Tensile Fatigu

Overview

Dancers are susceptible to a variety of injuries due to repetitive motion and physical strain, with 8 in 10 dancers getting injured each year and 72% of injuries occurring below the Ultimate Tensile Stress (Callahan et al.). Studies report approximately 0.6–5 injuries per 1,000 hours of dance exposure, largely due to repetitive loading, deep knee flexion, and high-impact transitions. Kathak dancers are particularly vulnerable to meniscal damage from constant axial loading and rapid pivots. This project develops a computational biomechanical model of a Kathak dancer’s lower body to analyze how joint constraints influence movement efficiency and injury risk. Using the Wolfram Language, I constructed a kinetic chain model of the hip, knee and ankle, incorporating anatomical joint limits and rule-based safety constraints. Forward and inverse kinematics was applied to simulate transitions between poses, where inverse kinematics was used to produce more anatomically realistic animations. An efficiency metric minimized joint variation and angular stress between sequential poses. Additionally, a mathematical tensile fatigue model simulated repetitive loading and stress accumulation within the meniscus caused by tensile fatigue. Results show that mathematically constrained pathways reduce excessive joint strain and eliminate oscillatory or unstable transitions. Overall, this research demonstrates that computational biomechanical modeling provides a low-cost, non-invasive method to analyze dance movement and injury mechanisms. Future work includes refining the meniscus tear model to be predictive, incorporating recovery-based rehabilitation variables, mapping tension distribution across dance surfaces, validating results with real-world dancer data to enhance injury prevention strategies, and further investigating the location of perturbations within the meniscus model.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Medicine & Physiology (Track 2) (Senior Division) · Entry S-21-22

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