Sensitivity Analysis of Articular Contact Mechanics

Abstract

Asymptotic models of articular contact developed in the previous chapters assume, in particular, that the cartilage layers are of uniform thickness and are bonded to rigid substrates shaped like elliptic paraboloids. In this final chapter, treating the term "sensitivity" in a broad sense, we study the effects of deviation of the substrate's shape from the elliptic (Sect. 9.1) and of nonuniform thicknesses of the contacting incompressible layers (Sect. 9.2). It is shown that these effects in multibody dynamics simulations can be minimized if the geometric parameters in question (in particular, the layer thicknesses) are determined in a specific way to minimize the corresponding error in the force-displacement relationship.