INTERSTITIAL FLUID FLOW BEHAVIOR IN OSTEON WALL UNDER NON-AXISYMMETRIC LOADING: A FINITE ELEMENT STUDY

Abstract

Physiological loads are non-axisymmetric and can lead to interstitial bone fluid flow, particularly in osteon. According to research, interstitial bone fluid flow plays a key role in bone mechanotransduction. To evaluate the poroelastic responses of a non-axisymmetric loaded osteon, this paper presents a finite element osteon model that is bulit by using the Comsol Multiphysics software. Obtained results show that under the same loading amplitude, the generated pressure and velocity amplitudes in the axial compression loading case are the largest, followed by that in the compressive bending loading, and smallest in the bending case. Moreover, the induced pressure and velocity amplitudes in axial compression loading exhibit an axial symmetrical distribution and axial centrosymmetric distribution in the compressive bending. In the bend loading case, the pressure amplitude presents an antisymmetric distribution, but the velocity amplitude is axially symmetrically distributed. Therefore, the distributions of pressure and velocity are definitely affected by load types, which lead to different bone fluid stimuli in mechanotransduction.