Macromolecular Dispersion in Synovial Fluid Under Generalized Plane Couette Flow.

Abstract

The tribological performance of an artificial knee joint is significantly impacted by the macromolecular components of synovial fluid because insufficient dispersion of these molecules causes aseptic loosening. This study uses Taylor dispersion theory to investigate the dispersion of proteins, hyaluronic acid (HA), and other macromolecules present in synovial fluid. The fluid motion is represented by a generalized plane Couette flow between two infinite, horizontal parallel plates modeling the joint space. The study investigates the combined influence of convective and diffusive transport processes on the dispersion of macromolecular components. The flow of synovial fluid is governed by the momentum equation which couples with the advection-diffusion equation to characterize solute transport. The governing partial differential equations are solved using Crank Nicolson scheme, subject to initial and boundary conditions. Result shows that the imposed pressure gradient significantly enhances axial dispersion causing the macromolecular components to spread more effectively in the downstream direction. The mean concentration distribution appears to decrease with increasing time and axial distance. Among albumin, γ-globulin and HA, albumin exhibits the highest dispersion coefficient. Furthermore, a 20% reduction in gap size (from 1 to 0.8 μm) leads to a 53.8% increase in the dispersion coefficient.