Affiliations: BioSyntech Inc., Laval, Quebec, Canada | Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Departments of Chemical and Mechanical Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Note: [] Address for correspondence: LePing Li, Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4. Tel.: +1 403 220 3449; Fax: +1 403 284 3553; E‐mail: poroelasticity@yahoo.com.
Abstract: The fibril reinforced poroelastic models have been found successful in describing some mechanical behaviors of articular cartilage in unconfined compression that were not understood previously, including the strong and nonlinear transient response, the strain‐magnitude and strain‐rate dependent cartilage stiffness and the depth‐varying stresses and strains. It has been demonstrated that a better description for the mechanical behavior of cartilage is obtained by introducing a fibrillar matrix into a poroelastic model, in addition to the nonfibrillar matrix and water. This paper reports the development of the nonlinear fibril reinforced homogeneous and nonhomogeneous models and further explores the potentials of the models for investigation of cartilage mechanical response. Some comments are made in regard to further applications of the models and improved accuracy of the material representation.
