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Procedia Environmental Sciences 8 (2011) 191 – 196

ICESB 2011: 25-26 November 2011, Maldives

Test the Mechanical Properties of Articular Cartilage using

Digital Image Correlation Technology
Yuzhu Wanga, Haiying Liua, Lilan Gaoa, Baoshan Xub, Chunqiu Zhanga∗
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Abstract

Articular cartilage is a kind of non-linear and viscoelastic connective tissue. A lot of attention has been paid to
articular cartilage whose mechanical properties is unique due to the complex structure and environment. It is
important to do detailed mechanical properties test in articular cartilage because it helps to reveal the principle of
metabolism in cartilage tissue and can also offer references for the treatment of clinical cartilage disease and the
repair of cartilage defects, etc. The traditional mechanical testing methods only reflect the macroscopic constitutive
relationship of cartilage’s mechanical properties, which is inaccurate and incomplete in analyzing the mechanical
properties of cartilage. However, it is hard to investigate cartilage’s mechanical properties in microscopic. Here the
digital image correlation method is introduced to investigate the microscopic mechanical properties in cartilage. The
equipment mainly includes image acquisition system, micro mechanical loading mechanism, control computer and
image processing software. Capturing Image period is 0.5s and loading rate is 0.01 mm/min-100 mm/min. The
acquired images can be dealt with by image processing software and then displacement field, strain field and shear
strain field are obtained. In this paper, the strain curve of cartilage from the surface zone to the deep was obtained by
conducting compression tests for articular cartilage of the pig based on digital image correlation method. Compared
with other methods, digital image correlation method is simple to operate and has low requirement for environment.
By using this method the comprehensive mechanical properties for articular cartilage can be obtained.

©
© 2011
2011Published
PublishedbybyElsevier
ElsevierLtd.
Ltd.Selection
Selectionand/or
and/orpeer-review
peer-reviewunder
underresponsibility
responsibilityof
ofthe Asia-Pacific
ICESB 2011
Chemical, Biological & Environmental Engineering Society (APCBEES) Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
.H\ZRUGVarticular cartilage; mechanical properties; digital image correlation; different layers

∗ Chunqiu Zhang. Tel.: 13012251281

(PDLODGGUHVV zhang_chunqiu@126.com.

1878-0296 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Asia-Pacific Chemical, Biological &
Environmental Engineering Society (APCBEES) Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.proenv.2011.10.031
192 Yuzhu Wang et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 8 (2011) 191 – 196

1.Introduction

Articular cartilage is a special elastic connective tissue which covers on joint ends surface and its main
physiological functions are to transfer load equably, expand bearing surface, amortize concussion load,
reduce the contact stress and provide low friction and wear smooth interface for the joint[1]. In view of
the above functions, in order to adapt to the complex mechanical environment, the structure of articular
cartilage is complex[2]. Loadings are offered for growth, development and maintaining normal
physiological functions of cartilage[3]. Therefore, investigating the mechanical behaviors of articular
cartilage not only helps to reveal the principle of metabolism in cartilage tissue but also can offer
references for the clinical treatment of disease and repair of cartilage defects. It is also important to
acquaint the structure of artificial cartilage, construct artificial cartilage and evaluate mechanical function
of cartilage simultaneously.


Fig. 1.The normal structure of articular cartilage[8]

The distribution of collagen fibers and orientation of its ultrastructure in cartilage are pivotal to
investigate the mechanical properties of cartilage[4]. The directions of collagen fibers are closely related to
loading balance and microstructure of tissue when they endure static or dynamic load[5]. According to the
distribution of collagen, articular cartilage can be divided into three layers (as shown in Fig.1): superficial
layer in cartilage surface where collagen fibers are parallel with articular surface and the long axis of the
cartilage cells is parallel with articular surface; the fibers in the middle layer distribute with certain angle
to the surface; collagen fibers with bigger diameters in the deep layer are perpendicular to articular
surface[6]. Because of the complex structure of cartilage the deformations of different cartilage layers are
different when loading. The macro strain of cartilage under loading can only be obtained based on the
current methods for investigating mechanical behaviors of cartilage, however it is hard to obtain the
strains of each layer[7]. To better understand the mechanics properties of articular cartilage under loading,
digital image correlation method was used to investigate the mechanical behaviors of articular cartilage.
The mechanical properties and strain curves of each layer were obtained when applying compression for
articular cartilage.

2.Methods

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The optical path of digital image correlation is simple and it doesn’t need special light. What's more, it
 Yuzhu Wang et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 8 (2011) 191 – 196 193

can easily do detection in the field. Through the image analyzing, we can get full-court deformation
information in any direction. More importantly the measure range of this method is large and the strain
sensitivity is 0.01%, especially suitable for deformation measurement in biological tissue material. In
addition, the adaptability of this method is strong. According to different sizes of object, we can choose
corresponding imaging lens and then carry out deformation measurement of samples from macroscopic to
microcosmic. From the point of view, digital image correlation technique can be applied to measure the
mechanical properties of articular cartilage.

Fig. 2. Microscopic test system of mechanical properties

Fig.3.Experimental diagram for the mechanical behavior of articular cartilage

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The equipment mainly consists of image collection system, micro mechanical loading mechanism,
control computer and image processing software (as shown in Fig.2, made in Shanghai university
mechanics experiment center). Motor and AC servo system which speed range is 0.01 mm/min - 100
mm/min and speed ratio is 1:10000 are installed to apply micro mechanical loading. The revolution speed
of electric driven machine sends to screw after slow down. And the two components of the screw are left-
hand thread and right-hand thread. The force measurement range of the fixture on one end is 0-100N. At
work, the deformation of the specimen is recorded in the control computer by the S-type force sensor
after conversing through the A/D converter. Through analyzing images captured by image processing
software, we can directly obtain displacement field, strain field, shear strain field and so on.
The fixture joints connected with the screw move to each other during the rotation of the motor to
ensure the fixed center position of the specimen. Mechanical loading mechanism can add loading by the
194 Yuzhu Wang et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 8 (2011) 191 – 196

control of force or displacement and the loading value can be obtained directly on the computer through
sensor. Through analyzing images ordinarily the deformations of specimens under different forces can be
obtained, thus the stress-strain relationship can be obtained. To ensure high-quality images, the system
uses progressive scan TV camera and image acquisition cards which can get 1376×1035, 8 bit grayscale
image. With long working distance and high magnification microscope, imaging system can observe the
range of 600ȝm square.

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In our experiment, fresh articular cartilage of distal femur adopted from a pig (8 months) was selected
as testing material. The cartilage was cut along the normal direction of articular surface. The specimen
was 2 mm long, 2 mm wide and its thickness varied from 1.6–2.2 mm. The specimen was clamped with a
chuck and articular surface next to the other chuck was loaded. Through adjusting the loading mechanism
the joint surface of the specimen can be contacted with the other side of the loading mechanism. The
layers of articular cartilage obtained by the image acquisition system can be seen clearly(70 ×
magnification) on the display by adjusting the view, focal length and light intensity of microscope. The
tiny prestressing force is exerted on cartilage.
chuck bone chuck cartilage bone chuck cartilage bone

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 4.Deformation image captured with image acquisition system (a)exert pre-tightening force;(b)for compression is 10%;(c)for
compression is 20%

 

 






 

 
                    



                     

(a) (b)

Fig. 5.Strain distribution curve from surface to deep (a) for compression is 10% (b) for compression is 20%.
 Yuzhu Wang et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 8 (2011) 191 – 196 195

After everything is ready, compression load is exerted on the specimen with loading rate of 0.5
mm/min and image capture period of 0.5s. Figure 4 shows a set of record for the deformation of cartilage.
The strain values of different layers for cartilage can also be obtained by processing the image captured in
the experiment. Figure 5 shows the strain distribution curve of cartilage from surface to deep with
compression value of 10% and 20%.
The strain values of different layers for articular cartilage were not the same in size and trend in the
compression process. The strain was relatively large in superficial layer compared with the middle and
deep layer. During the compression, the strain in superficial layer increased at first and then decreased,
while the strain in the middle layer slowly decreased. However the strain in the deep layer decreased at
first and then increased. Elastic modulus of each layer was also different and it showed a tendency of
decrease from surface to deep.

3.Conclusions

The mechanical properties for articular cartilage can be investigated in macro and micro by the method
of digital image correlation which composed with hardware (control computer, micro-mechanical loading
mechanism and optical microscopy) and software (image acquisition system). The compression test of
articular cartilage from pig was performed and the mechanical behaviors of different layers for cartilage
were obtained. In future research, we can use this technology more deeply and effectively. The test for
mechanical properties of articular cartilage will be more accurate and practical and then provide
references for the development of research on cartilage.

4.Discussion

The recent research is limited to test mechanical properties in each layer of articular cartilage
individually. Although taking into account the differences of deformation in different layers, it neglects
the interaction between layers. To some extent it is not accurate. So digital image correlation technology
is introduced in situ measurement of articular cartilage. Test is carried out in cartilage from the whole to
the various regions and that is benefit to analyzing the relationship of different regions and the whole
mechanical properties of the cartilage. In a sense, it is important to study articular cartilage.

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (10872147,31000422) and Tianjin
Natural Science Foundation (09JCYBJC1400˅

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