Sensitivity studies were performed to investigate how changes in assumed cartilage material properties, thickness and FE model boundary conditions affected predictions of cartilage contact mechanics. The baseline cartilage shear modulus was altered by ± 1 SD (G=10.45 and 2.68 MPa) using standard deviations for human cartilage [43 (link)]. To ascertain the effects of the assumption of cartilage incompressibility, bulk to shear modulus ratios of 100:1 (ν=0.495) and 10:1 (ν=0.452) were analyzed. To account for differences in segmentation threshold intensity between real and simulated cartilage [27 (link)], the baseline threshold value used to segment cartilage was adjusted by ± 50%. Updated cartilage FE hexahedral meshes were generated based on these surfaces. To quantify the affects of model boundary conditions, three separate cases were analyzed: 1) bones were assumed rigid, 2) the rigid constraint at the pubis joint was removed, and 3) trabecular bone was removed so that deformation of only the cortical bone was considered. Separate models were generated for each loading activity, yielding a total of 27 models.