Abstract
Intervertebral discs have a primarily mechanical role in transmitting loads through the spine. The disc is subjected to a combination of elastic, viscous and osmotic forces; previous 3D models of the disc have typically neglected osmotic forces. The fibril-reinforced poroviscoelastic swelling model, which our group has recently developed, is used to compute the interplay of osmotic, viscous and elastic forces in an intervertebral disc under axial compressive load. The unloaded 3D finite element mesh equilibrates in a physiological solution, and exhibits an intradiscal pressure of about 0.2 MPa. Before and after axial loading the numerically simulated hydrostatic pressure compares well with the experimental ranges measured. Loading the disc decreased the height of the disc and results in an outward bulging of the outer annulus. Fiber stresses were highest on the most outward bulging on the posterior-lateral side. The osmotic forces resulted in tensile hoop stresses, which were higher than typical values in a non-osmotic disc. The computed axial stress profiles reproduced the main features of the stress profiles, in particular the characteristic posterior and anterior stress which were observed experimentally.
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Acknowledgements
This research is made possible through the support of the European Union (EURODISC, Project Number QLK6-CT-2002–02582). The authors thank Donal McNally and Karen McKinlay (University of Nottingham, UK) for providing their experimental data for comparison. We would also like to thank Dr. Heiner Martin (University of Rostock, Germany) for providing the experimental anatomical measurements of a human lumbar vertebra.
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Appendix
Appendix
Abaqus has a biphasic model of the form:
With Dirichlet boundary conditions: [u] =0 and [p] =0.
Here \({\varvec{\upsigma}}_{\mathbf{e}} \) is the effective stress, p the fluid pressure, \(\vec{q}\) the fluid flux, k the permeability and u the displacements.
The swelling behavior through the Donnan osmotic theory was included into the biphasic theory as follows:
Here μf is the chemical potential and Δπ is the osmotic pressure given by Eq. 4 with Dirichlet boundary conditions: [u] = 0 and [μf] = 0.
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Schroeder, Y., Wilson, W., Huyghe, J.M. et al. Osmoviscoelastic finite element model of the intervertebral disc. Eur Spine J 15 (Suppl 3), 361–371 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-006-0110-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-006-0110-3