Effect of Magnetic Field in Lubrication of Synovial Joints

A two region flow model has been developed in this paper in the presence of external magnetic field for the better understanding of synovial joint lubrication mechanism. The model consists of two parallel porous cartilageous surfaces separated by a thin film of non newtonian lubricant representing the synovial fluid which is assumed to behave like a paramagnetic fluid system. In this paper, we have represented the cartilage by a mixture of two interacting continua and synovial fluid by viscoelastic fluid. A transverse magnetic field is applied to the system. We have used the modified form of Darcy’s law given by Zahn and Rosenweig; to describe the penetration dynamics of magnetic fluids through porous media. Because of exact solution not being possible for the governing non-linear partial differential equations, the perturbation method has been used to obtain approximate solutions. The results have been obtained by computational techniques and compared by results available in the literature. In this paper, the possibility of increased efficiency of joint lubrication, particularly in diseased states by the application of applied magnetic fields has been explored. The applied magnetic field increases the load carrying capacity. Which helps in sustaining greater loads. Similarly, the viscoelastic parameter describes the increase in the concentration of the suspended hyaluronic acid molecules which, in turn, increases the overall viscosity of the lubricant, which also helps in sustaining greater loads.