Jack L. Lewis, Principal Investigator

Biomechanics of Articular Cartilage

Articular cartilage weakens and fractures during the progression of osteoarthritis. The goal of this group’s research is to understand disease processes and matrix assembly processes for cartilage. Cartilage weakens in disease, but the underlying cause is usually unknown. The strength of artificial cartilage, as a replacement for diseased cartilage, is not yet as high as that of natural cartilage.

The strategy to address both of these issues is to understand the relationship between cartilage strength and microstructure. This group is developing test methods for measuring the failure properties of cartilage and other soft tissues, using stress analysis of candidate test specimens as one tool. They are also developing microstructural models that simulate cartilage microstructural composition and morphology. These models are analyzed using finite element analysis or other analytical methods, and related to macroscopic material properties. The numerical work parallels experiments designed to analyze and characterize articular cartilage and its microstructure.

Research Group

Michelle Fedewa, Graduate Student Researcher
Michelle Oyen-Tiesma, Graduate Student Researcher
Se-ho Park, Graduate Student Researcher