Fretting wear study on Ti–Ca–P biocomposite in dry and simulated body fluid

Abstract

In the present work, powder metallurgy processing was used to synthesize a titanium rich composite containing in situ formed bioactive calcium-phosphatic phases. The potential application of such a composite includes load-bearing implants. In view of the importance of friction and wear in biomedical applications, the present work was taken up to investigate the friction and wear properties of such Ti–Ca–P composite at fretting contact against bearing steel in simulated body fluid (SBF) environment. A comparison was also made with fretting behaviour in dry conditions. Tribological experiments were carried out on a biocomposite against bearing steel at different loads (2, 5 and 10 N) for 10,000 cycles with displacement stroke set to 80 μm and at 10 Hz frequency using a low amplitude reciprocatory fretting wear tester. In addition to reporting the measured tribological data, a major focus of the work was in understanding dominant wear mechanisms under dry ambient and physiological environment.