The Effects Of Water Content Of Articular Cartilage On Biomechanical Behaviour

Yew, Sin Ru (2019) The Effects Of Water Content Of Articular Cartilage On Biomechanical Behaviour. Project Report. Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

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Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a joint disease affects most of the patient around the world. The main cause of OA is the degeneration of articular cartilage. The primary stage of OA results in the change of biomechanical properties which include cartilage biphasic elastic modulus and permeability. The values of the mechanical compressive parameters and dynamic compressive moduli of articular cartilage in the early pre-osteoarthritic stage is decreased between 20 % and 80 % compared to healthy tissue as shown in a number of studies before. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the effect of water content of the cartilage on biomechanical behaviour using combination of experimental method and computational method. The cartilage specimens were weighed for every 30 minutes to determine the changes of water content in cartilage specimens. Then, creep indentation test was carried out on the cartilage specimens in each time interval to obtain the time-dependent and the deformation response of the cartilage, hence to characterise the biomechanical properties of the articular cartilage. Correlation analyses were performed to examine the relationship between the percentage of water content and biomechanical properties of cartilage biphasic elastic modulus and permeability. It was found that the percentage of water content was highly correlated with elastic modulus (r=−0.7501), whereas a moderate correlation with permeability (r=0.5192). These findings show the significant effect of the water content in the cartilage specimens towards the biomechanical behaviour of articular cartilage.

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