A Theoretical Study Of The Mechanical Response Of Articular Cartilage To Impact Loading

INTRODUCTION Experimentally, the stresses of articular cartilage have been found to depend on the loading rate [1,2]. Theoretically, the short-term transient behavior of cartilage in unconfined compression has been explored at strain rates of 0.01, 0.1 and 1%/s using a poroviscoelastic model [3]. In the present work, the transient stress-strain relationship, the dependence of stiffness on tissue volume change, and the load sharing between the solid matrix and fluid pressurization were explored in the full range of strain rates (0-∞), in an attempt to explain the nonlinear behavior of cartilage in an unconfined geometry under impact loading.