Modeling of Cellular Articular Cartilage Replacement Tissues in Modern Biomechanics

Predicting the mechanical properties of soft replacement tissues seeded with human chondrocytes is a main requirement in modern medical applications. The implants that are designed to fill in articular cartilage defects should exhibit the same strength and damping properties as the native material itself. For this reason, the acellular basis material of an implant, as well as cellular tissues, are investigated theoretically, numerically, and experimentally in this study. Knowing all of that, the main aim of this work is to reach a common methodology of theory and experiments that determines the mechanical properties of the native material and hence choose a suitable replacement one. This work is financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF).