Tribology and implants

Dr S. Mischler

EPFL, Institut des Matriaux, Laboratoire de Mtallurgie Chimique Cours Biomatriaux

Tribology is the science and practice of interacting surfaces in relative motion and of the practices related thereto. P. Jost (1966) It includes technological relevant phenomena such as: Friction Lubrication Wear

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Outline
1. Short introduction to tribology 2. The natural synovial joint 3. The Charnleys !low friction! artificial hip joint 4. The !low wear! artificial hip joint (metal on metal) 5. Summary and perspectives

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FRICTION
Tangential force Ff at the interface between two solid bodies which opposes to the relative motion between the two bodies induced by an external force Fext.

Fext Fn
Early experiments by Leonardo da Vinci

Ff

Forces

Friction coefficient = Ff / Fn
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SURFACES ARE ROUGH

Mirror polished steel surface: AFM image.

CONTACT THROUGH ASPERITIES

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Origins of friction: adhesion between surfaces

Adhesion: establishment of bonds between surfaces Inter-atomic bond Free bond (high energy)

Bonding !

The degree of adhesion depends on: - type of bond established between contating surfaces - deformation capability of the material (real area of contact, orientation) - surface oxidation, adsorption of molecules, contaminations
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Origins of friction: deformation

Example of deformation modes: hard indenter slides against a metal surface hard indenter

Metal surface Plowing (pushing material) Wedge formation (pushing material) Cutting (detachment of material)

The deformation work (frictional work) depends on: - geometry of indenter - hardness of metal
Picture from: I.M. Hutchings, Tribology: Friction and Wear of Engineering Materials, Arnold, London (1992) Dia 6/44

Friction is a system-dependent phenomenon

Sliding partner X
X
Steel 1032

air

X: Al6061 T6 Copper Steel 1032 Teflon

= 0.38 = 0.25 = 0.23 = 0.07

Contact configuration
Al6061 T6 Ti6Al4V

= 0.38

= 0.29 > 4 (seizure) = 1.5 = 0.4 < 0.1

Environment
Fe

Fe

Vacuum 10-3 bar O2 1 mbar O2 Oil film

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WEAR
Wear is the progressive material loss from solid surfaces in contact which occurs as a result of friction. As friction, wear is not a material property. It is a complex response of a material to the sollicitations induced by the system in which it operates. One can distinguish 4 fundamental mechanisms of wear : - adhesive wear mechanism - abrasive wear mechanism - fatigue (delamination) wear mechanism - tribochemical mechanism
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Adhesive wear by strong interfacial bonding

bonding

Critical factors - size of contacting area - bonding (ionic, covalent,

metallic, Van der Waals)

- surface contamination - surface oxydation

Steel against steel contact
H. Czichos, Tribology, Springer 1978 Dia 9/44

Abrasive wear by plastic deformation and microcutting

Critical factors - hardness ratio between indenting and abraded material > 1 - hardness of abraded material - roughness of indenting material
Aluminium abraded by SiC paper
H. Czichos, Tribology, Springer 1978 Dia 10/44

Fatigue wear by repeated load and unload cycles

load cracks Critical factors - stress and number of cycles - resistance to fatigue of the material - surface defects and residual stresses

unload

Fatigue failure of a steel ball bearing

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Tribochemical wear by removal of reaction layers

Wear activated corrosion Oxidative wear

Reaction layer Critical factors - mechanical properites of the reaction layer - reaction kinetics - kinematics and stresses

1 m

Agglomerated oxide particles after wear of a passive steel.

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LUBRICATION
Reduction of friction and/or wear by a lubricant film separating two contacting bodies in relative motion. Non lubricated contact Lubricated contact Lubricant film!

Type of lubricants: - fluid: oil, gas, water, body fluids - soft solids: some polymers, soft metals (Au, Ag) - lamellar solids: graphite, molybdenum disulfide MoS2 - adsorbed organic molecules
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Lubrication by fluids
Body 1 Fluid film Body 2

Hydrodynamic regime where the thickness of the fluid film is high enough to completely separate the two bodies Mixed regime

Boundary regime: where the thickness of the fluid film is not enough to separate the two bodies. Friction is determined by asperity contacts. Dia 14/44

The ! coefficient determines the lubrication regime

! = hc / R q
hc = thickness of hydrodynamic film hc " (# v / Fn)
# fluid viscosity, v sliding velocity

Rq = parameter characterising the height of asperities

!>3
1<!<3

Hydrodynamic regime Mixed regime Boundary regime

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!<1

Tribological contacts in hip joint implants

Large amplitude motion (up to 40 mm) at ball - cup contact. SLIDING WEAR

Small amplitude motion (up to 100 m) at the stem - cement or stem - bone contact. FRETTING WEAR

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Outline
1. Short introduction to tribology 2. The natural synovial joint 3. The Charnleys !low friction! artificial hip joint 4. The !low wear! artificial hip joint (metal on metal) 5. Summary and perspectives

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Structure of the natural synovial joint

Cartilage Bone

Synovial fluid

Bone

Supported load: up to 8 times the body weight Speed : 0 40 mm/s

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Mechanical properties
Material Cartilage UHMWPE Bone Ti6Al4V 316 Steel CoCrMo Alloy Al2O 3 Young's modulus Yield strength E [GPa] [MPa] 0.001 0.1 0.5 1.5 15 20 10 30 120 150 106 860 205 230 350 515 860 655 860 300
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Contact pressure
Load

Load
Elastic (deformation)

Rigid (no deformation)

Rh Rc > Rh

Rc
Larger contact area Lower contact pressure

Small contact area High contact pressure Example for Rh= 15 mm, Rc 15.05, 3000 N load

Contact Bone- cartilage 316L - UHMWPE CoCr - UHMWPE Bone - Bone CoCr - CoCr Al2O3 - Al2O3

2 MPa Contact pressure 2 2 23 119 157

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(calculated using Hertz theory for elastic deformation)

Friction
Couple Metal - Metal Metal - Polymer Polymer - Polymer Conventional oil lubrication Natural joint with synovial fluid Friction Coeff. 0.4 - 0.8 0.1 - 0.2 0.1 - 0.3 0.03 - 0.1 0.005 - 0.02

Natural joint without synovial fluid 0.2 - 0.3

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Lubrication of the natural synovial joint

1. Boundary lubrication by adsorption of organic compounds of low shear strength. Hydrodynamic lubrication by liquid film squeezed into the contact by motion. Hydrostatic lubrication by a fluid film ejected from the cartilage (sponge) when loading the joint (no motion necessary).

2. 3.

Boundary

hydrodynamic

hydrostatic
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Outline
1. Short introduction to tribology 2. The natural synovial joint 3. The Charnleys !low friction! artificial hip joint 4. The !low wear! artificial hip joint (metal on metal) 5. Summary and perspectives

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The Charnleys concept

Use a polymer on metal couple so as to achieve: 1) Low friction 2) Low contact pressure

Metal First stainless steel, afterwards CoCrMo alloys and hybrid structures with titanium stems and ceramic or CoCrMo heads.

Polymer material First, Teflon was used but, because of its extremely fast wear,replaced by UHMWPE.

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Wear of UHMWPE

A new knee prosthesis (left) and a prosthesis after 6 years clinical use (right).
Pictures: C. Rieker et al Ed, in World Tribology Forum in Arthroplasty, Huber (2001). Dia 25/44

Correlation between the in-vivo wear of PE cups and clinical performance

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Consequences of wear
Loss of mechanical functionality Bone resorption by particle disease

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Particle disease
Activated by high concentrations of particles of 0.5 - 1 m diameter

(Willert, Semlitsch 1974) Dia 28/44

Tribological tests for implants

In-vivo tests Simulators Laboratory model tests

Reference electrode RE

Moving arm

Linear motor

Counter electrode CE

Working electrode WE

Alumina ball 6 mm 3 axial force transducer 30 mm

Test of: Situation: Conditions: Response time:

systems real partially undefined very long

components realistic (?) controlled long

materials idealised best controlled short Dia 29/44

Effect of head roughness on in-vivo wear of polyethylene head

Artificial femoral head smooth scratched

polyethylene
PE wear volume [mm3/106 cycles] 40 23 80 21

!Analyses of explanted Charnley prostheses

(Fisher et al in Tribology Forum in Arthroplasty, C. Rieker et al Ed, 2001).
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SCRATCHING OF IMPLANT HEADS : Effect of hardness

Apatite, the mineral component of bone, is harder than the common biomedical alloys. Therefore scratching of metal can occur. Alumina is much harder than Apatite and thus little risk of scratching exists.

Alumina

CoCr, Ti alloys, Stainless steel

Data from ASM Handbook Vol 18, Friction, Wear and Lubrication Dia 31/44

Wear mechanism of UHMWPE in multidirectional sliding

Initial state Sliding in X Alignement

y x
Y X

Strong bond in x: little wear Aligned state: weak bond in y

Sliding in Y

Wear

Y X Dia 32/44

Cross linking of UHMWPE

Initial structure Irradiation ($-ray, e-beam)

- free radical

Crosslinking

Final structure

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Irradiation
Chain scission Free Radicals

Cross-linking Wear improvement

Residual free radicals Oxidation of UHMWPE

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Outline
1. Short introduction to tribology 2. The natural synovial joint 3. The Charnleys !low friction! artificial hip joint 4. The !low wear! artificial hip joint (metal on metal) 5. Summary and perspectives

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The concept of low wear joint

To use harder materials less sensitive to wear than UHMWPE, such as metal on metal or ceramic on ceramic couples.
Early G.K. McKee design (~1960 ) Modern modular design with PE and Titanium support

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Tribological requirements for contacting materials

No seizure (blocking of joint by too strong interfacial adhesion). Ti alloys and austenitic stainless steels therefore excluded !
In vivo damage of CoCrMo heads

High resistance against wear High resistance against scratching % high hardness

High resistance against fatigue and impacts % high toughness

Pictures: C. Rieker et al. in World Tribology Forum in Arthroplasty, C. Rieker et al. Eds., Huber (2001). Dia 37/44

Materials for low wear hip joints

CoCrMo alloys Al2O3 ZrO2

E = 200 K = 20 H = 350 E: Young's modulus [GPa] H: Vickers hardness [HV]

E = 390 K = 2!!4 H =2000

E = 200 K = 6!!9 H = 1200

K: Fracture toughness [MPa&m]

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Hydrodynamic lubrication in hip joints: ! (h/Rq) values calculated for typical load and velocity transients during gait. Hydrodynamic lubrication when !>3
Default values: 1 step / second Head diameter D = 28 mm Clearance C = 0.033 mm Roughness Rq = 10 nm Viscosity # = 1.5 mPa s Young's modulus E = 230 GPa Poissons coefficient = 0.3

Rq= 10 nm Rq= 45 nm

Clearance [mm]
Metal - Metal

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Outline
1. Short introduction to tribology 2. The natural synovial joint 3. The Charnleys !low friction! artificial hip joint 4. The !low wear! artificial hip joint (metal on metal) 5. Summary and perspectives

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In-vivo wear rates

Cup Polyethylene Polyethylene Polyethylene CoCrMo-Metal Al2O3-Ceramic Head Stainless Steel CoCrMo-Metal Al2O3-Ceramic CoCrMo-Metal Al2O3 -Ceramic Linear wear mm/year 0.1-0.3 0.1-0.3 0.05-0.15 0.003-0.01 0.003-0.01 (Polyethylene) (Polyethylene) (Polyethylene) (CoCrMo) (Al2O3)

Annual linear wear rate of different material combinations as used for cup and head in total hip replacement (M. Semlitsch 1998).

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N " ew materials and surfaces

Polymer composites: C-fiber reinforced PEEK. Metal: dedicated biomedical alloys, bulk metallic glasses. Ceramic composites: Al2O3/ZrO2, reduction of porosity. C " oatings: hard coatings and surface treatments of metals. To improve surface finish and precision in manufacturing (control of clearance) to guarantee hydrodynamic lubrication.

But: materials development for implants is a long term story!

Graph for <32 mm heads from National Joint Replacement Registry (Australia)

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"New designs
Large (>32 mm) heads Modular stems
Example: Stemcup Unysin Revision Stem

Graph for > 32 mm heads from National Joint Replacement Registry (Australia)
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Literature on tribology
I.M. Hutchings Tribology: Friction and Wear of Engineering Materials Arnold, London (1992) ISBN 0-340-56184-x, Note: didactic introductive book on the tribology of materials, 273 pages G. Stachowiak, AW. Batchelor Engineering Tribology Butterworth-Heinemann (2005) ISBN 0-7506-7836-4, Note: useful reference book for general use in tribology, 832 pages

Acknowledgment:
Thanks to Simona and Claude for providing many important figures.

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