On the Indentation Testing of Articular Cartilage: Determination of the Effective Poisson’s Ratio Using Two Different-Sized Punches

Effective Poisson’s ratio (EPR) of articular cartilage in compression is an important parameter, which is inversely correlated with stiffness of the collagen fibers [1]; and thus, if known, could provide valuable information about integrity of the collagen network in the tissue. Unfortunately, direct determination of the EPR by measuring lateral expansion during unconfined compression tests [2], while being effective, due to it’s destructive nature many times is not desired and/or hard to apply in practice. Optically-determined values of equilibrium EPR for bovine humeral articular cartilage using this method are reported to be in range 0.185±0.0065.