Crack initiation from a clinically relevant notch in a highly-crosslinked UHMWPE subjected to static and cyclic loading

Sirimamilla, Abhi; Rimnac, Clare M.

doi:10.1016/j.jmbbm.2018.12.032

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…There remain some potential obstacles to the application of the approach, such as difficulty in obtaining unique values of the material parameters in the constitutive model. In addition, the findings in a previous study by the authors [12] of distributed multi-layer crack initiation over the notch root surface [10, 12] presents a situation that potentially violates the assumption of J-integral as the only driving force of crack phenomena in UHMWPE.…”

Section: 5: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From a design standpoint, crack initiation from a clinically relevant notch condition is of more interest than crack initiation from a razor sharp condition which has been previously studied [9]. In a previous study by the authors [10], crack initiation from a notch with a radius of 0.25 mm was studied with consideration of the Williams’ viscous fracture model [11]. Further, we have noted that a time dependent power law, the Williams model (equations 1 and 2) appears to govern crack initiation and propagation in this material [12].…”

Section: 2: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Viscoplastic crack initiation and propagation in crosslinked UHMWPE from clinically relevant notches up to 0.5 mm radius

Sirimamilla

Rimnac

Furmanski

2018

Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials

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Highly crosslinked UHMWPE is now the material of choice for hard-on-soft bearing couples in total joint replacements. However, the fracture resistance of the polymer remains a design concern for increased longevity of the components in vivo. Fracture research utilizing the traditional linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) or elastic plastic fracture mechanics (EPFM) approach has not yielded a definite failure criterion for UHMWPE. Therefore, an advanced viscous fracture model has been applied to various notched compact tension specimen geometries to estimate the fracture resistance of the polymer. Two generic crosslinked UHMWPE formulations (remelted 65kGy and remelted 100kGy) were analyzed in this study using notched test specimens with three different notch radii under static loading conditions. The results suggest that the viscous fracture model can be applied to crosslinked UHMWPE and a single value of critical energy governs crack initiation and propagation in the material. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to implement a mechanistic approach to study crack initiation and propagation in UHMWPE for a range of clinically relevant stress-concentration geometries. It is believed that a combination of structural analysis of components and material parameter quantification is a path to effective failure prediction in UHMWPE total joint replacement components, though additional testing is needed to verify the rigor of this approach.

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Section: 5: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 2: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Viscoplastic crack initiation and propagation in crosslinked UHMWPE from clinically relevant notches up to 0.5 mm radius

Sirimamilla

Rimnac

Furmanski

2018

Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials

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“…In orthopaedic applications, the most critical form of damage in UHMWPE is not fatigue crack growth, but wear. The problem is most acute in knee joint replacements, which not only suffer losses of material from heavily loaded bearing surfaces, but also generate wear debris particles, which have diameters mainly in the range 0.1 to 10 μmsee Part 3 in this series [10][11][12][13]. The body's immunological response to these particles is complex; it includes both inflammation and bone loss (osteolysis), which in the most severe cases leads to loosening of the implant and the need for replacement surgery.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structure, processing and performance of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (IUPAC Technical Report). Part 4: sporadic fatigue crack propagation

Bucknall

Altstädt

Auhl

et al. 2020

Pure and Applied Chemistry

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Fatigue tests were carried out on compression mouldings supplied by a leading polymer manufacturer. They were made from three batches of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) with weight-average relative molar masses, ${\overline{M}}_{\mathrm{W}}$, of about 0.6 × 106, 5 × 106 and 9 × 106. In 10 mm thick compact tension specimens, crack propagation was so erratic that it was impossible to follow standard procedure, where crack-tip stress intensity amplitude, ΔK, is raised incrementally, and the resulting crack propagation rate, da/dN, increases, following the Paris equation, where a is crack length and N is number of cycles. Instead, most of the tests were conducted at fixed high values of ΔK. Typically, da/dN then started at a high level, but decreased irregularly during the test. Micrographs of fracture surfaces showed that crack propagation was sporadic in these specimens. In one test, at ΔK = 2.3 MPa m0.5, there were crack-arrest marks at intervals Δa of about 2 μm, while the number of cycles between individual growth steps increased from 1 to more than 1000 and the fracture surface showed increasing evidence of plastic deformation. It is concluded that sporadic crack propagation was caused by energy-dissipating crazing, which was initiated close to the crack tip under plane strain conditions in mouldings that were not fully consolidated. By contrast, fatigue crack propagation in 4 mm thick specimens followed the Paris equation approximately. The results from all four reports on this project are reviewed, and the possibility of using fatigue testing as a quality assurance procedure for melt-processed UHMWPE is discussed.

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“…According to previous studies, great effort has been put on the research of FCG of UHMWPE and its modified materials. Sirimamilla and Rimnac () investigated the effects of loading conditions (static and cyclic loading) on crack initiation and propagation behavior of cross‐linked UHMWPE considering different loading frequencies and waveforms. The results suggested that crosslinked UHMWPE was more resistant to crack initiation from a notch under static loading conditions compared with fatigue loading conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biaxial fatigue crack propagation behavior of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene reinforced by carbon nanofibers and hydroxyapatite

et al. 2019

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Ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) artificial joint has remained the preferred polymer component in total joint replacement surgery. However, more and more concerns have been raised about the failure of UHMWPE components due to the initiation and propagation of cracks at the notches with fixed functions. For this reason, biaxial fatigue crack growth (FCG) experiments of UHMWPE reinforced by carbon nanofibers (CNF) and hydroxyapatite (HA) were carried out using elastic–plastic fracture mechanics theory. The FCG resistance of UHMWPE, UHMWPE/CNF, and UHMWPE/HA was compared, and the effects of stress ratio (R) value and phase difference on FCG rate were investigated. At the same time, the influence of loading path was considered, and the corresponding crack path was analyzed. Results suggest that UHMWPE/CNF has better FCG resistance and the FCG rate increases with the increase of R value and the existence of 180° phase difference. In addition, crack bifurcation behavior is not observed under nonproportional loading conditions. The findings in this study will provide experimental validation and data support for better clinical application of UHMWPE‐modified materials.

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Crack initiation from a clinically relevant notch in a highly-crosslinked UHMWPE subjected to static and cyclic loading

Cited by 7 publications

References 41 publications

Viscoplastic crack initiation and propagation in crosslinked UHMWPE from clinically relevant notches up to 0.5 mm radius

Viscoplastic crack initiation and propagation in crosslinked UHMWPE from clinically relevant notches up to 0.5 mm radius

Structure, processing and performance of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (IUPAC Technical Report). Part 4: sporadic fatigue crack propagation

Biaxial fatigue crack propagation behavior of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene reinforced by carbon nanofibers and hydroxyapatite

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