A computational model has been developed to quantify the degree of cross-shear of a polyethylene pin articulating against a metallic plate, based on the direct simulation of a multidirectional pin-onplate wear machine. The principal molecular orientation (PMO) was determined for each polymer site. The frictional work in the direction perpendicular to the PMO was assumed to produce the greatest orientation softening (Wang et al., 1997). The cross-shear ratio (CS) was defined as the frictional work perpendicular to the PMO direction, divided by the total frictional work. Cross-shear on the pin contact surface was location-specific, and of continuously changing magnitude because the direction of frictional force continuously changed due to pin rotation. The polymer pin motion was varied from a purely linear track (CS=0) up to a maximum rotation of ±55° (CS=0.254). The relationship between wear factors (K) measured experimentally and theoretically predicted CS was defined using logarithmic functions for both conventional and highly cross-linked UHMWPE. Crossshear increased the apparent wear factor for both polyethylenes by more than 5-fold compared to unidirectional wear.
The effect of multi-directional cross-shear (CS) motion and contact pressure on ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) wear was investigated in this study, based on an integrated experimental and computational approach. The wear factor as a function of CS was determined experimentally from a multi-directional pin-on-plate wear tester under a nominal contact pressure of 1 MPa. A computational wear model was developed which included the effects of CS as well as the load and sliding distance imposed on the hip joint employing a UHMWPE cup against a metallic femoral head under both gait and Leeds ProSim hip joint simulator conditions. The CS ratios were quantified over the articular surface of the UHMWPE cup and the CS-dependent wear factors derived from multi-directional pin-on-plate studies were applied in the computational wear model. Outputs from the computational wear model were validated independently against an experimental hip simulator study. Comparisons of linear and volumetric wear were made between the computational wear model and the hip simulator testing for a nominal conventional (0 MRad) UHMWPE cup of 28mm diameter and a highly cross-linked (10 MRad) UHMWPE cup. The difference between the computed and experimental volumetric wear was approximately 30 per cent for the 0 MRad UHMWPE, although the worn areas between the prediction and the measurement were similar. For the 10 MRad UHMWPE, the discrepancy was reduced to 16 per cent. In both cases, the computational model predicted a lower wear rate than the experimental simulator testing. The effect of using alternative wear factors under a different nominal contact pressure of 3MPa was also considered. The input wear factor to the computational model, derived from a constant loaded pin-on-plate test configuration, may underestimate the dynamic effect due to the variation in the load in the hip joint simulator.
A fully coupled contact and wear model was developed in the present study for hip implants employing an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) cup in combination with a metallic or ceramic femoral head. A simple elasticity equation based on the concept of constrained column model was employed to solve the contact mechanics between the acetabular cup and the femoral head under the three-dimensional physiological loading condition. The wear model was based on the classical Archard-Lancaster equation in common with all other studies reported in the literature. The fully coupled contact and wear model was applied to both conventional and cross-linked UHMWPE cups under a wide range of design parameters such as the clearance and the femoral head radius. The predicted linear and volumetric wear as well as their rates for conventional UHMWPE cups were found to be in good agreement with those obtained from a similar analysis by Maxian but using the finite element method for the contact mechanics analysis. The predicted maximum contact pressure was found to decrease rapidly within the first 10(6) cycles, and below the limit to cause plastic deformation within the UHMWPE cup with a nominal radial clearance of 0.2 mm. The effect of the clearance between the head and the cup on the predicted wear was found to be negligible. For the cross-linked UHMWPE cup with relatively large diameters up to 48 mm and a fixed outside diameter of 50 mm, the predicted wear, which was found to increase with increasing femoral head radius, remained small owing to the small wear factor associated with these materials. Furthermore, if the head diameter increases beyond 42 mm, a rapid increase in the contact pressure was predicted, owing to the decrease in the wall thickness of the cross-linked UHMWPE cup.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.