The finite element (FE) model of the pelvic joint is helpful for clinical diagnosis and treatment of pelvic injuries. However, the effect of an FE model boundary condition on the biomechanical behavior of a pelvic joint has not been well studied. The objective of this study was to study the effect of boundary condition on the pelvic biomechanics predictions. A 3D FE model of a pelvis using subject-specific estimates of intact bone structures, main ligaments and bone material anisotropy by computed tomography (CT) gray value was developed and validated by bone surface strains obtained from rosette strain gauges in an in vitro pelvic experiment. Then three FE pelvic models were constructed to analyze the effect of boundary condition, corresponding to an intact pelvic joint, a pelvic joint without sacroiliac ligaments and a pelvic joint without proximal femurs, respectively. Vertical load was applied to the same pelvis with a fixed prosthetic femoral stem and the same load was simulated in the FE model. A strong correlation coefficient (R(2)=0.9657) was calculated, which indicated a strong correlation between the FE analysis and experimental results. The effect of boundary condition changes on the biomechanical response depended on the anatomical location and structure of the pelvic joint. It was found that acetabulum fixed in all directions with the femur removed can increase the stress distribution on the acetabular inner plate (approximately double the original values) and decrease that on the superior of pubis (from 7 MPa to 0.6 MPa). Taking sacrum and ilium as a whole, instead of sacroiliac and iliolumber ligaments, can influence the stress distribution on ilium and pubis bone vastly. These findings suggest pelvic biomechanics is very dependent on the boundary condition in the FE model.
Cavitation phenomenon in lubricants significantly influences the performance of associated machinery. In this paper, the cavitation mechanism of an oil-film bearing is attributed to gaseous cavitation, and a new gaseous cavitation model based on air solubility in the lubricant is presented. The model is validated using the Reynolds equation algorithm for fixed-geometry oil-film journal bearing, and the predicted results at different eccentricity ratios show good agreement with published data. The analyses show that gaseous mechanism can explain the cavitation phenomena that occur in the bearing except for very heavy load cases. In particular, this new model is compatible with the Jakobsson–Floberg–Olsson condition. Therefore, the new model has an explicit physical meaning, can produce good results, can identify whether vaporous cavitation occurs, and more importantly, can provide a novel means of developing cavitation models for low-vapor-pressure lubricants.
Locusts have excellent jumping and kicking abilities to survive in nature, which are achieved through the energy storage and release processes occurring in cuticles, especially in the semi-lunar processes (SLP) at the femorotibial joints. As yet, however, the strain energy-storage mechanisms of the SLP cuticles remain unclear. To decode this mystery, we investigated the microstructure, material composition, and mechanical properties of the SLP cuticle and its remarkable strain energy-storage mechanisms for jumping and kicking. It is found that the SLP cuticle of adult Locusta migratoria manilensis consists of five main parts that exhibit different microstructural features, material compositions, mechanical properties, and biological functions in storing strain energy. The mechanical properties of these five components are all transversely isotropic and strongly depend on their water contents. Finite element simulations indicate that the two parts of the core region of the SLP cuticle likely make significant contributions to its outstanding strain energy-storage ability. This work deepens our understanding of the locomotion behaviors and superior energy-storage mechanisms of insects such as locusts and is helpful for the design and fabrication of strain energy-storage devices.
Cartilage damage and wear can lead to severe diseases, such as osteoarthritis, thus, many studies on the cartilage wear process have already been performed to better understand the cartilage wear mechanism. However, most characterization methods focus on the cartilage surface or the total wear extent. With the advantages of high spatial resolution and easy characterization, Raman microspectroscopy was employed for the first time to characterize full-depth changes in the cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM) after wear test. Sections from the cartilage samples after wear were compared with sections from the control group. Univariate and multivariate analyses both indicated that collagen content loss at certain depths (20%-30% relative to the cartilage surface) is possibly the dominating alteration during wear rather than changes in collagen fiber orientation or proteoglycan content. These findings are consistent with the observations obtained by scanning electron microscopy and histological staining. This study successfully used Raman microspectroscopy efficiently assess full-depth changes in cartilage ECM after wear test, thus providing new insight into cartilage damage and wear.
A 3-D finite element model, including cartilages, menisci and four main ligaments, was developed to investigate the effect of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction on the biomechanics of knee joint. The menisci were assumed to be transversely isotropic and ligaments to be hyperelastic. The biomechanics of tibiofemoral joint were analyzed under 134 N posterior femoral force for three different ACL reconstructions (Bone-patellar tendon-Bone, double and quadruple semitendinosus). Due to the stability and stress in other tissues, the quadruple semitendinosus graft reconstruction was better than the others (Bone-patellar tendon-Bone and double semitendinosus) but can only restore ACL function partially. The higher stress induced in medial collateral ligament and menisci by reconstruction may cause these tissues damage or degeneration in future.
As one of the most frequently used grafts in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, hamstring tendon (HT) grafts are prepared with different lengths and fixed by specific fixations in knee joints. However, there are incomplete studies to investigate both the joint kinematics and graft biomechanics in the ACL reconstructions with different HT graft lengths. In this paper, three different graft lengths (i.e., 30, 50, and 70 mm) were developed in the ACL reconstruction and analyzed using finite element method under two usual clinical test loads (i.e., 134 N anterior tibial drawer and pivot shift test load). The different mechanical properties of the corresponding fixations were also considered for each graft length. It was revealed that the change in HT graft length would cause different strain and stress results in the grafts, but did not greatly influence joint stabilities under the two clinical test loads. The graft reaction force at the femoral fixation was always greatly lower than that at the tibial fixation regardless of load and graft length. The comparison of stress and strain results also indicated that more graft tissues inside the femoral and tibial tunnels could decrease the stress and strain values at the femoral and tibial fixation sites, respectively.
The biomechanics and function of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) have been widely studied using both experimental and simulation methods. It is known that a constitutive model of joint tissue is a critical factor in the numerical simulation. Some different ligament constitutive models have been presented to describe the ACL material behavior. However, the effect of the variation in the ligament constitutive model on joint kinematics and biomechanics has still not been studied. In this paper, a three-dimensional finite element model of an intact tibiofemoral joint was reconstructed. Three ACL constitutive models were compared under different joint loads (such as anterior tibial force, varus tibial torque, and valgus tibial torque) to investigate the effect of the change of the ACL constitutive model. The three constitutive models corresponded to an isotropic hyperelasticity model, a transversely isotropic hyperelasticity model with neo-Hookean ground substance description, and a transversely isotropic hyperelastic model with nonlinear ground substance description. Although the material properties of these constitutive equations were fitted on the same uniaxial tension stress-strain curve, the change of the ACL material constitutive model was found to induce altered joint kinematics and biomechanics. The effect of different ACL constitutive equations on joint kinematics depended on both deformation direction and load type. The variation in the ACL constitutive models would influence the joint kinematic results greatly in both the anterior and internal directions under anterior tibial force as well as some other deformations such as the anterior and medial tibial translations under valgus tibial torque, and the medial tibial translation and internal rotation under varus torque. It was revealed that the transversely isotropic hyperelastic model with nonlinear ground substance description (FE model III) was the best representation of the realistic ACL property by a linear regression between the simulated and the experiment deformation results. But the comparison of the predicted and experiment force of ligaments showed that all the three ACL constitutive models represented similar force results. The stress value and distribution of ACL were also altered by the change in the constitutive equation. In brief, although different ACL constitutive models have been fitted using the same uniaxial tension curve and have the similar longitudinal material property, the ACL constitutive equation should still be carefully chosen to investigate joint kinematics and biomechanics due to the different transverse material behavior.
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