Investigation of techniques for the surface roughness characterisation of bovine articular cartilage

[摘要] This thesis investigates the surface roughness of healthy bovine humeral lateral condyle articular cartilage using a nontrivial technique of three-dimensional electron-topography with stereoscopic approach. It is a non-contact roughness characterisation with high resolution using elementary particle electron. Eucentric scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images of different magnifications (500×, 800×, 1200× and 2000×) were used for topographic reconstruction. After reconstruction, roughness has been extracted from the 3D topography. The technique was verified with a commercial standard surface of nanoscale roughness to determine its reliability by repeating with six samples. The roughness values obtained in different magnifications for six samples were compared and calibrated with atomic force microscopy (AFM). Then the method of 3D-ET was employed on four articular cartilage surfaces. The results for both the surfaces showed that surface roughness increased with magnification and thumb-rule relation has been derived. The obtained roughness values for articular cartilage range from 165 nm to 418 nm for magnification of 500× to 2000×. The cartilage samples were also calibrated with AFM and a constitutive relation between them has been derived. The thesis aims to provide a breakthrough of non-contact surface roughness analysis for mimicking articular cartilage to artificial materials for replacement therapy.

[发布机构] University:University of Birmingham;Department:School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering

[关键词] Q Science;QH Natural history;QH301 Biology