Dynamic unconfined compression of articular cartilage under a cyclic compressive load.

To study the effect of dynamic mechanical force on cartilage metabolism, many investigators have applied a cyclic compressive load to cartilage disc explants in vitro. The most frequently used in vitro testing protocol has been the cyclic unconfined compression of articular cartilage in a bath of culture medium. Cyclic compression has been achieved by applying either a prescribed cyclic displacement or a prescribed cyclic force on a loading platen placed on the top surface of a cylindrical cartilage disc. It was found that the separation of the loading platen from the tissue surface was likely when a prescribed cyclic displacement was applied at a high frequency. The purpose of the present study was to simulate mathematically the dynamic behavior of a cylindrical cartilage disc subjected to cyclic unconfined compression under a dynamic force boundary condition protocol, and to provide a parametric analysis of mechanical deformations within the extracellular matrix. The frequency-dependent dynamic characteristics of dilatation, hydrostatic pressure and interstitial fluid velocity were analyzed over a wide range of loading frequencies without the separation of the loading platen. The result predicted that a cyclic compressive force created an oscillating positive-negative hydrostatic pressure together with a forced circulation of interstitial fluid within the tissue matrix. It was also found that the load partitioning mechanism between the solid and fluid phases was a function of loading frequency. At a relatively high loading frequency, a localized dynamic zone was developed near the peripheral free surface of the cartilage disc, where a large dynamic pressure gradient exists, causing vigorous interstitial fluid flow.