Fluid Transport Within Porous Media Including Ionic Exchanges
Thibault Lemaire, Joanna Kaiser, Vittorio Sansalone and Salah Naili
Interstitial fluid within bone tissue is known to govern the remodelling signals expression. Bone fluid flow is generated by skeleton deformation during the daily activities. Due to the presence of charged surfaces in the bone porous matrix, the electro-chemical phenomena occurring in the vicinity of mechano-sensitive bone cells, the osteocytes, are key elements in the cellular communication. The aim of this study is to improve previous models of bone fluid transport by including chemical exchanges due to bone cells activity. Thanks to this multiphysical model, the transport of remodelling signalling molecules, nutrients and waste between the blood vessels and the bone cells can be simulated in order to better understand the mechanotransduction of bone remodelling.
Keywords: Nernst-Planck model, Cationic exchanges, Multiscale, Modelling, Bone remodeling, Effective diffusion.