Title: Finite element modelling the natural human joint

Authors: R.W. Walker, P. Ingle

Addresses: Department of Computing and Technology, Anglia Ruskin University, Bishop Hall Lane, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1SQ, UK. ' Department of Computing and Technology, Anglia Ruskin University, Bishop Hall Lane, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1SQ, UK

Abstract: There is an increasing interest in constructing FEA models of the natural joints of the human body to determine the stress distribution in both healthy and defective joints. A key requirement of these models is an accurate specification of the properties of the articular cartilage. There are wide variations in the published Young|s modulus for human and animal cartilage ranging from 0.07 MPa to 150 MPa (see Table 1 for details). The lower values of Young|s modulus imply large values of strain under normal physiological loads, which has been argued as unrealistic. The conclusion is that the higher value of Young|s modulus is physiologically a more realistic value to use for stress analysis of cartilage.

Keywords: cartilage properties; finite element analysis; FEA; human joints; stress distribution; healthy joints; defective joints; articular cartilage; strain; physiological loads; modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2009.026975

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, 2009 Vol.1 No.3, pp.288 - 299

Published online: 12 Jul 2009 *

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