Soft Tissue and Knee Joint Mechanics

The soft tissues of the knee joint are often assumed to be linear, elastic, isotropic, and homogeneous in computational simulations of knee biomechanics, when in fact, most of these tissues are non-linear, viscoelastic, anisotropic, and mechanically heterogeneous.  In order to more fully understand the requirements of engineered tissue for applications such as ACL replacement or reconstruction, or to understand the effect of ACL reconstruction on knee biomechanics, we do extensive testing to characterize the non-linear viscoelastic response of both soft tissues and our engineered tissues. We also develop analytical models of tissues and computational simulations of entire anatomical structures, such as the knee, to examine the biomechanics of soft tissue during normal motion and events that result in injury. We demonstrate the effect of neglecting such realities as mechanical heterogeneity and non-linearity on computational predictions of knee biomechanics.