Date of Completion

2014

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences

First Advisor

Yves Dubief

Keywords

Synovial Fluid, Multilamellar, SAPL, Elastic, LAMMPS

Abstract

Synovial fluid provides essential boundary lubrication for diarthrodial joints including the hips, knee, and many other joints in humans. While the structure, molecular components, and properties of synovial fluid are relatively well understood, several theories exist for the mechanism of lubrication. Multilamellar phospholipid structures are believed to be an essential part of the lubricating mechanism, yet the study of the mechanical properties has received little attention from the scientific community. Here we investigate the elastic response of multilamellar phospholipid structures under anisotropic compression using coarse grain molecular dynamics. Various hydration levels are considered in order to develop a relationship between hydration and rupture pressure. This is then used to describe membrane elasticity in terms of hydration. Two regimes of elasticiy are found. Additionally some variation is found between current LAMMPS simulations and previous studies conducted in Gromacs.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Download

Share

COinS