Biomechanics Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Biomechanics, including details on mechanics of living organisms, movement, locomotion, prosthetic limbs.

Influence of an initiating microsplit on the resistance to compression-induced rupture of the articular surface.

Flachsmann R, Kistler M, Rentzios A, Broom ND

Biomaterials Research Laboratory, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Cartilage-on-bone samples from bovine patellae containing a defined stellar or linear initiating split in the articular surface were incrementally loaded in direct compression with intervening rehydration, until articular surface rupture occurred. All patellae were either normal or exhibited a mild level of surface fibrillation. In all cases the actual loading site was free of disruption. The average rupture stress of the healthy cartilage was significantly higher than that of the mildly degenerate cartilage, and in both tissue categories average rupture stresses were lower for the linear split morphology than for the stellar. We propose that this contrasting rupture behavior is explained by differences in both secondary lineal surface strains associated with the depth of compressive indentation and in the ability of the fibrillar network within the surface layer to re-arrange itself in the localized regions of stress concentration around the initiating split.

Published 6 June 2006 in Connect Tissue Res, 47(2): 77-84.
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