ARUP; ISBN: 978-0-9562121-5-3 - CMBBE 2012 - Cardiff University

condition before and after heating.
Thermal conductivity of cartilage. Hot Disk Thermal Constants Analyzer (TPS-500)
was used to measure the heat conductivity of bovine cartilage and synovial fluid.
4. RESULTS
4.1. Experimental determination of cartilage thermal parameters
Dissipation of cartilage. The amount of dissipation was 0.025 ± 0.009 mW/mm 3 . We
considered this value as an internal heat source over the whole cartilage geometry.
Heat capacity and thermal conductivity of cartilage and synovial fluid. The obtained
experimental values are shown in Table 2:
Heat capacity of cartilage, Cp [J/kg.K] 3200
Heat capacity of synovial fluid, Cl [J/kg.K] 3900
Conductivity of synovial fluid, kl [W/m.K] 0.62
Conductivity of cartilage, kp [W/m.K] 0.21
Table 2: DSC and TPS results for cartilage and synovial fluid.
These values are used to model heat transfer in cartilage porous media.
4.2. Model of heat transfer in cartilage
The velocity field of synovial fluid. Figure 2 shows the distribution of temperature in
our model during one complete cycle of loading and unloading of cartilage. The red
arrows show the fluid velocity inside the porous cartilages during exudation and
imbibition and the streamlines show the pressure distribution.
25% of a cycle
50% of a cycle
75% of a cycle
100% of a cycle
Figure 2: temperature, velocity and pressure distribution in the model during one cycle (25, 50, 75 and100%
of a complete cycle).