Rheological study of lubricant gelling in synovial joints during articulation (Q1100061)

A two-region flow and diffusion model is proposed to study fluid transport and ultrafiltration at poroelastic cartilagineous surfaces. When the gap narrows to about one tenth of the initial gap, ultrafiltration starts and leads to the formation of hyaluronic acid protein gel on the surfaces, which protects the normal filtering surfaces from possible harmful actual contacts. The effects of Peclet number critical concentration for the gel formation, retention, and viscoelastic parameters on the gel formation are discussed.