Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) has been used in orthopedics as one of the materials for artificial joints in knee, hip and spine prostheses, most of the implanted joints are designed so that the metal of the prosthesis is articulate against a polymeric material, however the main problems is the average life time of the UHMWPE due to wear, and the particles generated by the friction of the metal on the articulation of the polymer are the most common inducer of osteolysis, generating a loosening of the implant leading to an imminent failure resulting in the total replacement of the prosthesis. In this investigation a numerical model of abrasive wear was made using the classic Archard wear equation applied to dynamic simulation of finite element analysis (FEA) of the micro-abrasion test using a subroutine written in Fortran language linked to the finite element software to predict the rate of wear. The results of the numerical model were compared with tests of abrasive wear in the laboratory, obtaining a margin of error below 5%,concluding that the numerical model is feasible for the prediction of the rate of wear and could be applied in knowing the life cycle of joint prostheses or for the tribological analysis in industrial machinery or cutting tools. The wear coefficient (K) was obtained from the grinding tests depending on the depth of stroke of the crater, which was analyzed by 3D profilometry to obtain the wear rate and the wear constant.
References
[1]
Rodríguez, R., Urriolagoitia-Sosa, Torres, Ch., Hernández, L., Urriolagoitia-Calderón, G. and Carbajal, M. (2012) Development of an Experimental Apparatus for Testing Total Knee Prostheses Focused on Mexican Phenothype. International Journal of Physical Sciences, 7, 5779-5786.
[2]
Tabor, B.Y. (1973) Fricción una introducción a la Tribología.
[3]
Amstutz (1992) Mechanism and Clinical Significance of Wear Debris-Induced Osteolysis. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 276, 7-18.
https://doi.org/10.1097/00003086-199203000-00003
[4]
Tipper (2006) Isolation and Characterization of UHMWPE Wear Particles Down to Ten Nanometers in Size from in Vitro Hip and Knee Joint Simulators. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, 78, 473-480.
https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm.a.30824
[5]
Ingham (2000) Biological Reactions to Wear Debris in Total Joint Replacement. Journal of Engineering in Medicine, 214, 21-37.
https://doi.org/10.1243/0954411001535219
[6]
Pal, S. (2008) Probabilistic Computational Modeling of Total Knee Replacement Wear. Wear, 264, 701-707. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wear.2007.06.010
[7]
Alsamhan, A.M. (2012) Rationale Analysis of Human Artificial Knee Replacements. Journal of King Saud University Engineering Sciences, 25, 49-54.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2011.12.002
[8]
Pakhaliuk, V., Polyakov, A., Kalinin, M. and Kramar, V. (2015) Improving the Finite Element Simulation of Wear of Total Hip Prosthesis’ Spherical Joint with the Polymeric Component. Procedia Engineering, 100, 539-548.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.01.401
[9]
Nabrdalik, M. (2014) Use of the Finite Elements Method in the Analysis of Load of Polyethylene Inserts of Knee Joint Endoprosthesis. Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computational Mechanics, 13, 87-93.
https://doi.org/10.17512/jamcm.2014.2.09
[10]
Bahraminasaba, M. (2011) Finite Element Analysis of the Effect of Shape Memory Alloy on the Stress Distribution and Contact Pressure in Total Knee Replacement. Trends in Biomaterials and Artificial Organs, 25, 95-100.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.01.401
Liu, F., Fisher, J. and Jin, Z.M. (2013) Effect of Motion Inputs on the Wear Prediction of Artificial Hip Joints. Tribology International, 63, 105-114.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.triboint.2012.05.029
[13]
Innocenti, B., et al. (2014) Development and Validation of a Wear Model to Predict Polyethylene Wear in a Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Finite Element Analysis. Lubricants, 2, 193-205. https://doi.org/10.3390/lubricants2040193
[14]
Netter, J., et al. (2015) Prediction of Wear in Crosslinked Polyethylene Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty. Lubricants, 3, 381-393.
https://doi.org/10.3390/lubricants3020381
[15]
Rodriguez, R., Urriolagoitia, G., Torres, Ch., Hernandez, L.H. and Martínez, I. (2013) On the Numerical Analysis of Contact Stresses in a Total Knee Replacement (TKR). Science and Information Conference, London, 7-9 October 2013, 197-201.
[16]
Archard, J.F. and Hirst (1956) Wear of Metals under Unlubricated Conditions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 236, 410. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1956.0144
[17]
Molinari, J.F. (2001) Finite-Element Modeling of Dry Sliding Wear in Metal. Engineering Computations, 18, 592-601. https://doi.org/10.1108/00368790110407257
[18]
Podra, P. and Andersson, S. (1999) Simulating Sliding Wear with Finite Element Method. Tribology International, 32, 71-81.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-679X(99)00012-2
[19]
Cantizano, A., Carnicero, A. and Zavarise, G. (2002) Numerical Simulation of Wear-Mechanism Maps. Computational Materials Science, 25, 54-60.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0927-0256(02)00249-5
[20]
Agelet De Saracibar, C. and Chiumenti, M. (1999) On the Numerical Modeling of Frictional Wear Phenomena. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 177, 401-426. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0045-7825(98)00390-9
[21]
Hegadekatte, V., Huber, N. and Kraft, O. (2005) Finite Element Based Simulation of Dry Sliding Wear. Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, 13, 57-75. https://doi.org/10.1088/0965-0393/13/1/005
[22]
Rigne, D.A. (1997) Comments on the Sliding Wear of Metals. Tribology International, 30, 361-367. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-679X(96)00065-5
[23]
Archard, J. (1953) Contact and Rubbing of Flat Surfaces. Journal of Applied Physics, 24, 981-988. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1721448
[24]
Trezona, R.J. and Hutchings, I.M. (1999) Three-Body Abrasive Wear Testing of Soft Material. Wear, 233-235, 209-221. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0043-1648(99)00183-0
