Analytical Study of Boosted Lubrication for Synovial Ankle Joint

Abstract

The modeling of the lubrication of human ankle joint has been considered in this present research. Many parameters were carried out such as joint geometry parameters as (minimum film thickness h, radial clearance c, Eccentricity e), lubricant parameters as (synovial fluid viscusity μ, couple stress property η) and cartilage matrix parameters as (Ratio of microstructure size to pore β, Permeability of the cartilage ϕ, Porous layer thickness H). The effects of these parameters on the synovial fluid velocity, pressure in the porous region, load carrying capacity per unit length of the bearing and the coefficient of friction were investigated. The model starts from the theory of boosted lubrication for the human articular joints lubrication and takes into account the fluid transport across the articular cartilage using Reynolds equation and modified Darcy’s equation. The results show that the pressure increased with increasing the couple stress length and the eccentricity ratio parameters. The synovial velocity profile was changing from Newtonian at (l*=0.0) to non-Newtonian profile as increasing the couple stress length. Finally the coefficient of friction increases with decreasing the eccentricity ratio and with increasing the joint radial clearance.