Experimental investigation of the temperature elevation in bone drilling using conventional and vibration-assisted methods

Abstract

Bone drilling is widely used in orthopaedics for inserting screws and fixing prostheses. Thermal necrosis is one of the major problems that may seriously affect post-operative recovery. Accordingly, this paper mainly focuses on comparing the influences of conventional drilling (CD), ultrasonic vibration-assisted drilling (UVAD) and low-frequency vibration-assisted drilling (LFVAD) methods, and drilling parameters on the temperature elevation in bone drilling process. A full factorial experiment was performed, and the temperatures were measured using an infrared camera. The lowest temperature elevation was obtained by LFVAD compared with CD and UVAD at the same drilling conditions. Setting CD as a reference, the maximum difference between LFVAD and CD was approximately −4 °C, whereas that between UVAD and CD was approximately 16 °C. The temperature elevation increases linearly with the spindle speed and follows an inverted U-shaped curve, with the feed rate having a peak at 40 min/mm in each drilling method. The results were discussed with regard to the features of LFVAD and UVAD. It was expected that the LFVAD could achieve minimal thermal damage and attain better results in the medical bone drilling process.