Role of ultrafiltration of synovial fluid in lubrication of human joints (Q2265876)

Introducing the concept of mixture theory of two interacting continua for the poroelastic cartilage and the micromorphic approach for the synovial fluid, a two-region flow model has been developed in order to study the lubrication characteristics of synovial joints. The fluid transport in the deformable porous cartilaginous matrix is computed from a simple analysis of the coupled equations of motion and the resulting flow into the intra-articular gap. As the gap closes, ultrafiltration of the suspending medium increases the load carrying capacity and closure time. It ultimately leads to the formation of a lubricant gel on the surfaces when the gap reduces to the order of surface asperities.