Experimental investigation of the dynamic properties of natural cartilage under reciprocating sliding at two typical rubbing pairs

Abstract

Natural cartilage is a multiporous viscoelastic biological material with extremely high water content and a macroscopically curved surface. Due to the sampling frequency limitations of typical data systems, the dynamic properties of the contact of cartilage against other surfaces, including rubbing surface characteristics and coefficient of friction, is still not completely understood. In this study, cartilage samples were retrieved from 18- to 24-month-old bovine femora. Contact displacement and coefficient of friction of two typical rubbing pairs of for cartilage-on-glass and cartilage-on-cartilage were recorded using a UMT-2 testing rig using a high sampling frequency data system. A five-point sliding average method was adopted to analyze the experimental data. The results showed that contact displacement comprised cartilage deformation and nominal rubbing profile. Cartilage deformation increased nonlinearly with time while nominal rubbing profile was associated with the rubbing configuration and appeared to be a factor in the low surface sample configuration. Higher cartilage deformation resulted in more load being carried by the solid phase and coefficient of friction with the time as a whole, but the surface characteristics played a role in determining the coefficient of friction in the cartilage-on-cartilage configuration but a lesser role for cartilage-on-glass. Therefore, surface characteristics have a clear role in defining the dynamic properties of natural viscoelastic soft biological materials and these research results will help to evaluate in future the frictional properties of artificial cartilage biomaterials.

Keywords

Bio-tribology viscoelastic biological material coefficient of friction surface characteristics contact displacement

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Coles

Blum

Jay

, et al. In situ friction measurement on murine cartilage by atomic force microscopy. J Biomech 2008; 41: 541–548.

Jin

Dowson

. Bio-friction. Friction 2013; 1: 100–113.

Teeple

Karamchedu

Larson

, et al. Arthroscopic irrigation of the bovine stifle joint increases cartilage surface friction and decreases superficial zone lubricin. J Biochem 2016; 49: 3106–3110.

Swann

Silver

Slayter

, et al. The molecular-structure and lubricating activity of lubricin isolated from bovine and human synovial-fluids. J Biochem 1985; 225: 195–201.

Forster

Fisher

. The influence of continuous sliding and subsequent surface wear on the friction of articular cartilage. Proc IMechE, Part H: J Engineering in Medicine 1999; 213: 329–345.

Jin

Pickard

Forster

, et al. Frictional behavior of bovine articular cartilage. Biorheology 2000; 37: 57–63.

Ateshian

Soltz

Mauck

, et al. The role of osmotic pressure and tension-compression nonlinearity in the frictional response of articular cartilage. Transport Porous Media 2003; 50: 5–33.

Ozturk

Stoffel

Jones

, et al. The effect of surface-active phospholipids on the lubrication of osteoarthritic sheep knee joints friction. Tribol Lett 2004; 16: 283–289.

Naka

Hattori

Ikeuchi

. Evaluation of the superficial characteristics of articular cartilage using evanescent waves in the friction tests with intermittent sliding and loading. J Biomech 2006; 39: 2164–2170.

10.

Basalo

Chahine

Kaplun

, et al. Chondroitin sulfate reduces the friction coefficient of articular cartilage. J Biomech 2007; 40: 1847–1854.

11.

Katta

Pawaskar

Jin

, et al. Effect of load variation on the friction properties of articular cartilage. Proc IMechE, Part J: J Engineering Tribology 2007; 221: 175–181.

12.

Gleghorn

Bonassar

. Lubrication mode analysis of articular cartilage using Stribeck surfaces. J Biomech 2008; 41: 1910–1918.

13.

Chan

SMT

Neu

Komvopoulos

, et al. The role of lubricant entrapment at biological interfaces: reduction of friction and adhesion in articular cartilage. J Biomech 2011; 44: 2015–2020.

14.

Kienle

Boettcher

Wiegleb

, et al. Comparison of friction and wear of articular cartilage on different length scales. J Biomech 2015; 48: 3052–3058.

15.

Bonnevie

Delco

Galesso

, et al. Sub-critical impact inhibits the lubricating mechanisms of articular cartilage. J Biomech 2017; 53: 64–70.

16.

OKelly

Unsworth

Dowson

, et al. A study of the role of synovial fluid and its constituents in the friction and lubrication of human hip joints. Proc IMechE, Part H: J Engineering in Medicine 1978; 7: 77–83.

17.

McCann

Ingham

Jin

, et al. Influence of the meniscus on friction and degradation of cartilage in the natural knee joint. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 2009; 17: 995–1000.

18.

Song

Ito

Kourtis

, et al. Articular cartilage friction increases in hip joints after the removal of acetabular labrum. J Biomech 2012; 45: 524–553.

19.

Thomas

Fryman

Liu

, et al. Hydrophilic-hydrophobic hydrogels for cartilage replacement. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater 2009; 2: 588–595.

20.

Murakami

Nakashima

Yarimitsu

, et al. Effectiveness of adsorbed film and gel layer in hydration lubrication as adaptive multimode lubrication mechanism for articular cartilage. Proc IMechE, Part J: J Engineering Tribology 2011; 225: 1174–1185.

21.

Chen

Zhang

Yang

, et al. Research on torsional friction behavior and fluid load support of PVA/HA composite hydrogel. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater 2016; 62: 182–194.

22.

Murakami

Yarimitsu

Sakai

, et al. Superior lubrication mechanism in poly(vinyl alcohol) hybrid gel as artificial cartilage. Proc IMechE, Part J: J Engineering Tribology 2017; 231: 1160–1170.

23.

Cao

Xiong

Wang

, et al. Semi-degradable porous poly (vinyl alcohol) hydrogel scaffold for cartilage repair: evaluation of the initial and cell-cultured tribological properties. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater 2017; 68: 163–172.

24.

Ewing

. Articular cartilage and knee joint function: basic science and arthroscopy, New York: Raven Press, 1990.

25.

Caligaris

Ateshian

. Effects of sustained interstitial fluid pressurization under migrating contact area, and boundary lubrication by synovial fluid, on cartilage friction. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 2008; 16: 1220–1227.

26.

Bostan

Trunfio-Sfarghiu

Verestiuc

, et al. Mechanical and tribological properties of poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) hydrogels as articular cartilage substitutes. Tribol Int 2012; 46: 215–224.

27.

Maroudas

Bullough

Swanson

SAV

. The permeability of articular cartilage. J Bone Joint Surg Br 1968; 50b: 166–177.

28.

Pickard

Ingham

Fisher

. Investigation into the effect of proteoglycan molecules on the tribological properties of cartilage joint tissues. Proc IMechE, Part H: J Engineering in Medicine 1998; 212: 177–182.

29.

Qian

. The frictional coefficient of bovine knee articular cartilage. J Bionic Eng 2006; 3: 79–85.

30.

Wang

. Application of MATLAB in the processing of vibrational signal (in Chinese), Beijing: China Water Power Press, 2006, pp. 73–82.

31.

Krishnan

Kopacz

Ateshian

. Experimental verification of the role of interstitial fluid pressurization in cartilage lubrication. J Orthop Res 2004; 2: 565–570.

32.

Qian

Zhang

. Investigation of contact and friction behavior of natural cartilage by glass slope. Phys Procedia 2012; 33: 85–95.

33.

Forster

Fisher

. The influence of loading time and lubricant on the friction of articular cartilage. Proc IMechE, Part H: J Engineering in Medicine 1996; 210: 109–119.