The computer simulation of wear behavior appearing in total hip prosthesis

Abstract

Computer algorithms are proposed for the estimation of wear appearing in artificial hip joints using finite element analysis based on the modified Archard's wear law, contact features and an analogue wear process. A pin-on-disk plate experiment is reconstructed to assess the efficiency and validity of the algorithms proposed here. Through the successful verification of wear depth and volume loss of the pin-on-disk plate as well as the artificial hip joint, the current algorithms provide significant agreement with experiments, clinical measurements and numerical calculations and are shown to be both valid and feasible. Further investigation into the effect of femoral heads with various sizes suggests that the larger femoral head may induce larger wear volume but gives a smaller wear depth and that wear depth and volume loss are apparently nonlinearly related to the femoral head diameter. It is shown that the current algorithms are useful and helpful in understanding wear behavior for alternative or new designs of artificial hip joints and even for other analogous structures.