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A micro-scale abrasion test to study the influence of counterface roughness on the wear resistance of UHMWPE

T. LAURIAN1,* , A. TUDOR1, I. ANTONIAC1, F. MICULESCU2

Affiliation

  1. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Romania
  2. Faculty of Materials Science, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Romania

Abstract

In a common total hip or knee replacement the most used bearing pair consist of a hard smooth metal femoral component articulating against a soft Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) acetabular (or tibial) component. The smoothness of the femoral surfaces and their resistance to third-body scratching are critically important for reducing the wear rate of UHMWPE. Experimental work was performed to find out the dependence between UHMWPE wear rate and the metal counterface roughness. The experimental study shows that the wear rate of UHMWPE is approximately proportional to the surface roughness of the counterface raised to the power 5.65..

Keywords

Wear of UHMWPE, Micro-scale abrasion, Hip prosthesis, Surface roughness.

Submitted at: March 23, 2007
Accepted at: Nov. 16, 2007

Citation

T. LAURIAN, A. TUDOR, I. ANTONIAC, F. MICULESCU, A micro-scale abrasion test to study the influence of counterface roughness on the wear resistance of UHMWPE, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 9, Iss. 11, pp. 3383-3388 (2007)