Supervisors
- Position
- Professor of Biomedical Engineering & Director, MERF
- Division / Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- Position
- Professor and Chair of Biomedical Engineering and Spinal Disorders
- Division / Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
Overview
When engineers design bearing surfaces, they aim for the hardest, smoothest surfaces they can find. When a bearing surface evolves in nature, however, a different approach is taken.
Articular cartilage, the material covering the ends of our joints and letting them articulate, combines a tough network of collagen, entrapping water and a high-swelling proteoglycan matrix. Young’s modulus is only ~10 MPa, and its surface is intentionally rough, yet it can out-perform engineering bearings in terms of lifetime and coefficient of friction, all while modulating the load transfer through our joints.
This project seeks to explore the mechanisms through which articular cartilage can achieve such a feat.
Research activities
As part of a collaboration with the University of Oxford, the VRES project will perform a series of mechanical experiments on cartilage specimens, selectively removing or manipulating constituents to determine their interplay.
Outcomes
The VRES project feeds into a larger study which has developed new models describing cartilage mechanics. It will provide the experimental data to test these models, and will thus form a key part of the work advancing the biomechanics field.
Keywords
Contact
Contact the supervisor for more information.