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A Musculoskeletal Model for Estimating Hip Contact Pressure During Walking
Brecca M M Gaffney1,2, Spencer T Williams3, Jocelyn N Todd4
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA.
Annals of Biomedical Engineering
|July 21, 2022
Summary
An elastic foundation model in OpenSim can estimate hip cartilage contact pressures. While not perfect for peak pressure location, it offers a computationally efficient alternative for analyzing contact areas in osteoarthritis research.
Area of Science:
- Biomechanics
- Orthopedics
- Computational modeling
Background:
- Osteoarthritis (OA) etiology is strongly linked to cartilage contact pressures.
- Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is commonly used to estimate these pressures, often incorporating subject-specific joint geometry.
- Existing FEA models typically lack subject-specific joint kinematics and muscle forces.
- Musculoskeletal models incorporate subject-specific kinematics and muscle forces but often do not estimate cartilage contact pressures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To adapt an elastic foundation (EF) contact model within OpenSim.
- To predict hip cartilage contact pressures using subject-specific kinematics and muscle forces.
- To compare the predictive accuracy of the EF model against validated FEA models.
Main Methods:
- Developed EF and FEA models for five subjects.
- Applied subject-specific kinematics and muscle forces in the EF models.
- Calculated pressure as a function of cartilage overlap depth in the EF models.
- Adjusted cartilage material properties (elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio) to match FEA pressures.
- Compared peak pressure, pressure location, and contact area between EF and FEA models.
Main Results:
- EF models using an elastic modulus of 15 MPa and Poisson's ratio of 0.475 showed the most comparable results to FEA.
- Peak pressure differences were 4.34 ± 1.98 MPa (39.96 ± 24.64%).
- Contact area differences were 3.73 ± 2.92% (13.4 ± 11.3%).
- Peak pressure location matched FEA in 3 out of 5 subjects.
Conclusions:
- The adapted EF model in OpenSim provides a computationally efficient method for estimating hip cartilage contact pressures.
- The model shows reasonable agreement with FEA for contact area magnitudes and patterns.
- It is not recommended for research critically dependent on the precise location of peak contact pressure.
- This EF model may be valuable for studies requiring subject-specific geometry, kinematics, muscle forces, and dynamic motion analysis in OA research.
