School of Mechanical Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250353, China; Shandong Institute of Mechanical Design and Research, Jinan 250031, China.
School of Mechanical Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250353, China; Shandong Institute of Mechanical Design and Research, Jinan 250031, China.
Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2022 Nov;226:107169. doi: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2022.107169. Epub 2022 Oct 2.
Recently conducted biomedical studies have shown that the drug diffusivity of hyaluronic acid hydrogel plays an important role in the treatment of joint diseases. The drug diffusivity is closely related to the water content of hydrogel. In addition, different water content will not only affect its mechanical and tribological properties, but also change the effect of drug release.
In this work, a Molecular dynamics simulation was used to investigate the effect of water content on spatial distribution, tribological and mechanical properties of a hyaluronic acid hydrogel network. This paper focuses on the analysis and calculation of the radial distribution function of 20, 40, 60, and 80% water content model and the friction force and mechanical parameters under the influence of different load and friction speed.
The results show that at 20 and 40% water content, the spatial distribution is loose and the intermolecular force is not strong, resulting in a major lack in tribological and mechanical properties; whereas at 60 and 80% water content, the spatial distribution becomes gradually compact and the intermolecular force is gradually increased. The tribological and mechanical properties manifest a marked improvement.
The calculations reveal that the hydrogel model has the best wear resistance, pressure resistance, and plastic deformation resistance at 80% water content. In the range of 20-80% water content, the mechanical properties and friction properties of hydrogels become better and better with the increase of water content.
最近进行的生物医学研究表明，透明质酸水凝胶的药物扩散性在治疗关节疾病方面起着重要作用。药物扩散性与水凝胶的含水量密切相关。此外，不同的含水量不仅会影响其机械和摩擦学性能，还会改变药物释放的效果。
在这项工作中，使用分子动力学模拟研究了水含量对透明质酸水凝胶网络的空间分布、摩擦学和力学性能的影响。本文重点分析和计算了 20%、40%、60%和 80%水含量模型的径向分布函数以及在不同载荷和摩擦速度影响下的摩擦力和力学参数。
结果表明，在 20%和 40%的水含量下，空间分布松散，分子间力不强，导致摩擦学和力学性能严重不足；而在 60%和 80%的水含量下，空间分布逐渐变得紧凑，分子间力逐渐增加。摩擦学和力学性能明显改善。
计算表明，水凝胶模型在 80%的水含量下具有最佳的耐磨性、抗压性和抗塑性变形性。在 20-80%的水含量范围内，随着水含量的增加，水凝胶的力学性能和摩擦性能越来越好。
