Mohd Juzaila Abd Latif

Biomechanical characterisation of ovine spinal facet joint cartilage

The spinal facet joints are known to be an important component in the kinematics and the load transmission of the spine. The articular cartilage in the facet joint is prone to degenerative changes which lead to back pain and treatments for the condition have had limited long term success. There is currently a lack of information on the basic biomechanical properties of the facet joint cartilage which is needed to develop tissue substitution or regenerative interventions. In the present study, the thickness and biphasic properties of ovine facet cartilage were determined using a combination of indentation tests and computational modelling. The equilibrium biphasic Youngs modulus and permeability were derived to be 0.76±0.35 MPa and 1.61±1.10×10⁻¹⁵ m⁴/(Ns) respectively, which were within the range of cartilage properties characterised from the human synovial joints. The average thickness of the ovine facet cartilage was 0.52±0.10 mm, which was measured using a needle indentation test. These properties could potentially be used for the development of substitution or tissue engineering interventions and for computational modelling of the facet joint. Furthermore, the developed method to characterise the facet cartilage could be used for other animals or human donors.

The Effects of Physiological Biomechanical Loading on Intradiscal Pressure and Annulus Stress in Lumbar Spine: A Finite Element Analysis

The present study was conducted to examine the effects of body weight on intradiscal pressure (IDP) and annulus stress of intervertebral discs at lumbar spine. Three-dimensional finite element model of osseoligamentous lumbar spine was developed subjected to follower load of 500 N, 800 N, and 1200 N which represent the loads for individuals who are normal and overweight with the pure moments at 7.5 Nm in flexion and extension motions. It was observed that the maximum IDP was 1.26 MPa at L1-L2 vertebral segment. However, the highest increment of IDP was found at L4-L5 segment where the IDP was increased to 30% in flexion and it was more severe at extension motion reaching to 80%. Furthermore, the maximum annulus stress also occurred at the L1-L2 segment with 3.9 MPa in extension motion. However, the highest increment was also found at L4-L5 where the annulus stress increased to 17% in extension motion. Based on these results, the increase of physiological loading could be an important factor to the increment of intradiscal pressure and annulus fibrosis stress at all intervertebral discs at the lumbar spine which may lead to early intervertebral disc damage.

Sensitivity Study of Surface Curvature in Characterisation Of Cartilage Mechanical Properties

The mechanical properties of articular cartilage serve as important measures of tissue function or degeneration, and are known to change significantly with asteoarthritis. In previous computational studies, the cartilage surface of axisymmetric models was assumed to be flat in order to evaluate the cartilage behaviour. This assumption was inappropriate since the synovial joint possessed curvature geometrical shape and may contribute to the inaccurate in characterising the cartilage properties. Therefore, this study aims to examine the sensitivity of cartilage surface curvature of characterized cartilage biphasic properties using a combination of experimental and computational methods. Axisymmetric biphasic poroelastic finite element models were generated to measure cartilage surface radius and thickness. Based on the results, the smaller cartilage surface of 20 mm radius produced higher difference of the characterised properties where its generate 9% difference in the permeability and 5% difference in the elastic modulus, compared to the flat cartilage. Based on these results, it may indicate that the cartilage curvature will affect the characterised cartilage biphasic properties of elastic modulus and permeability.

Parametric Study of Low Velocity Impact using Finite Element Analysis

An aircraft structural and material response is very complex when subjected to impact. It involves both elastic and plastic deformation in instant. Nevertheless, investigating this phenomenon is challenging yet interesting. Therefore, this research attempts to investigate the effect of selected parameters variation (i.e. material type, skin thickness and impact velocity) to the resulting equivalent plastic shear strain using finite element analysis (FEA). The finite element (FE) models were developed using commercially modeling and FE software to replicate an aircraft fuselage (target) and projectile according to the experimental setup and data established by other researcher [. The current study only focuses on the materials response and deformation behavior due low velocity (30 150 m/s) impact of a blunt object to a square shape target made of Al 2024-T3 and aluminum alloy 7475 (AA 7475). In all cases (parameters variation), the resulting equivalent plastic strain has been determined and compared to the established data. It is found that the currents results are very close to the actual material response measured in experiments. This proves that simulated results are validated and the study contributed some knowledge to understanding the behaviour of the structural and material response in a low impact velocity. By varying selected parameters, the impact resistivity of the structure could be improved.