The role of synovial fluid filtration by cartilage in lubrication of synovial joints--II. Squeeze-film lubrication: homogeneous filtration.

Abstract

A mathematical model of synovial film filtration and synovial gel formation at normal approach of cartilage surfaces in the human hip joint is presented. The biphasic mixture model presented in Part I of this paper [Hlavácek, J. Biomechanics 26, (1993)] for synovial fluid and that of Mow and his collaborators [J. Biomech. Engng 102, 73-84 (1980)] for cartilage are used. A general analysis of filtration of an axially symmetric synovial squeeze-film between two cartilage layers at normal approach is given. The geometrically simple case much idealising the human hip joint is also considered: two cartilage discs with a synovial film in between are compressed by the steady loading of the half human weight. The homogeneous film filtration process where the synovial gap remains parallel and the macromolecular concentration in the gap is spatial homogeneous (to the thin-film approximation) and time-dependent is numerically analysed. If the hyaluronic acid concentration of the synovial gel at equilibrium is 50 mg/ml at least, the resulting stable gel layer thickness for the homogeneous filtration in the human hip joint and for normal synovial fluids is about 0.1 micron, being almost independent of the loading. Inflammatory synovial fluid shows values several times lower.