Water-lubrication effects on zirconia debris production in hip-joint simulators

P. A. Williams, I. C. Clarke, G. Pezzotti, D. D. Green, B. Ben-Nissan

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

Little is known about the wear of zirconia-zirconia bearing systems for total joint replacements. In this study zirconia-zirconia specimens were run on a simulator with water lubrication. After catastrophic failure of the bearings, the lubricating fluid was filtered and the wear debris examined. The debris particles were larger than would be expected and exhibited a monoclinic structure. The wear surface showed signs of extensive delamination consistent with failure of the bearing surfaces. Water lubrication under hip simulator conditions results in rapid failure of zirconia surfaces. However, wear studies of zirconia-zirconia hip designs with serum lubrication to over twenty million cycles demonstrated little if any wear change of the bearing surfaces.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)835-838
Number of pages4
JournalKey Engineering Materials
Volume240-242
DOIs
StatePublished - 2003
EventProceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Ceramics in Medicine; The Annual Meeting of the International Society for Ceramics in Medicine - Sydney, NSW, Australia
Duration: Dec 4 2002Dec 8 2002

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering

Keywords

  • Clinical
  • Serum lubrication
  • Water lubrication
  • Wear debris
  • Wear surface
  • Zirconia

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