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Abstract
Combining musculoskeletal simulations with anatomical joint models capable of predicting cartilage contact mechanics would provide a valuable tool for studying the relationships between muscle force and cartilage loading. As a step towards producing multibody musculoskeletal models that include representation of cartilage tissue mechanics, this research developed a subject-specific multibody knee model that represented the tibia plateau cartilage as discrete rigid bodies that interacted with the femur through deformable contacts. Parameters for the compliant contact law were derived using three methods: (1) simplified Hertzian contact theory, (2) simplified elastic foundation contact theory and (3) parameter optimisation from a finite element (FE) solution. The contact parameters and contact friction were evaluated during a simulated walk in a virtual dynamic knee simulator, and the resulting kinematics were compared with measured in vitro kinematics. The effects on predicted contact pressures and cartilage–bone interface shear forces during the simulated walk were also evaluated. The compliant contact stiffness parameters had a statistically significant effect on predicted contact pressures as well as all tibio-femoral motions except flexion–extension. The contact friction was not statistically significant to contact pressures, but was statistically significant to medial–lateral translation and all rotations except flexion–extension. The magnitude of kinematic differences between model formulations was relatively small, but contact pressure predictions were sensitive to model formulation. The developed multibody knee model was computationally efficient and had a computation time 283 times faster than a FE simulation using the same geometries and boundary conditions.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation, Grant number 506297, under the IMAG program for Multiscale Modelling. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of researchers in the Experimental Joint Biomechanics Research Lab at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, for their contributions to this work (Lorin Maletsky, Kevin Dodd, Amber Reeve, Chadd Clary and Amit Mane). The authors would also like to thank Mohammad Kia and Gavin Paiva for their assistance in this study.