Stress wave effects in a finite element analysis of an impulsively loaded articular joint.

A dynamic contact finite element formulation was used to study transient stresses in the impulsively loaded rabbit knee, an established experimental model of mechanically induced osteoarthrosis. The computations were used to test the hypothesis that stress wave propagation and reflection, from juxtarticular interfaces of material property discontinuity, could be responsible for markedly increased levels of transient local cartilage stress. The finite element results demonstrated intuitively credible stress wave propagation and interfacial reflection phenomena. However, the magnitude of these waves was not nearly large enough to appreciably alter the quasi-static stress distributions otherwise prevailing. Thus, local stress wave reflection from interfaces of modulus discontinuity (for example the cartilage/subchondral plate) probably does not contribute appreciably to the heightened tissue sensitivity to impulsive loading experimentally observed in this animal model.