Modeling and Finite Element Analysis of the Human Knee Joint Affected by Osteoarthritis

The paper presents a complex three-dimensional model of the human knee joint, containing bones, ligaments, menisci, tibial and femoral cartilages. To investigate the role of the articular cartilage in the developing of the osteoarthritis, to analyze and simulate the biomechanical behavior of the human knee joint, a finite element analysis was performed. The non-linearities are due to the presence of the contact elements modeled between components surfaces and to the nonlinear properties of the cartilage, applying a load of 800 N and 1500 N, for 0 degrees in flexion. The results show that misalignment (valgus variation) could damage the articular cartilage because they increase the stress magnitude, that progressively produce articular cartilage damage and it enhances the osteoarthritis phenomenon due to mechanical factors. The displacements and the Von Mises stress distributions on the cartilage and menisci the virtual prototype, considering an angle of 10 degrees for valgus, are presented. The obtained values are comparable with the values obtained by other authors.