Tribology and implants

Dr S. Mischler
EPFL, Institut des Matériaux, Laboratoire de Métallurgie Chimique
Cours Biomatériaux, 10.11.2006

“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

1
Outline
1. Short introduction into tribology
2. The natural synovial joint
3. The «
low friction
» artificial hip joint of
Charnley
4. The «
low wear
» artificial hip joint (metal on
metal)
5. Summary and perspectives

2
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 Ff

Fn

Early experiments by L. Da Vinci Forces

Coefficient of friction
= Ff / Fn

3
SURFACES ARE ROUGH
Mirror polished
steel surface:
AFM image.

CONTACT THROUGH ASPERITIES

4
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

5
Origins of friction: deformation

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

hard indenter

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

6
Friction is a system dependent phenomenon
Sliding partner X
X: Al6061 T6 µ = 0.38
X Copper µ = 0.25
air Steel 1032 µ = 0.23
Steel 1032
Teflon µ = 0.07

Contact configuration
Al6061 T6 Ti6Al4V

µ = 0.38 µ = 0.29
Environment
Vacuum µ > 4 (seizure)
Fe
10-3 bar O2 µ = 1.5
Fe 1 mbar O2 µ = 0.4
Oil film µ < 0.1
7
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
8
Adhesive wear by strong interfacial bonding

bonding

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

- surface contamination
- surface oxydation
Steel against steel contact
H. Czichos, Tribology, Springer 1978

9
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 10
Fatigue wear by repeated load and unload cycles

load unload
cracks

Critical factors
- stress and number of cycles
- resistance to fatigue of the
material
- surface defects and residual
stresses
Fatigue failure of a steel ball bearing

11
Tribochemical wear by removal of reaction layers

Wear activated
corrosion

Oxidative
Reaction layer wear

1 µm
Critical factors
- mechanical properites of
the reaction layer
- reaction kinetics
- kinematics and stresses
Agglomerated oxide particles after
wear of a passive steel.
12
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
13
Lubrication by fluids
Hydrodynamic regime
Body 1
where the thickness of
Fluid film
the fluid film is high
Body 2
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.
14
The  coefficient determines the lubrication regime
 = hc / Rq
hc = thickness of hydrodynamic film

hc
( v / Fn)  fluid viscosity, v sliding velocity

Rq = parameter characterising the height of asperities

>3 Hydrodynamic regime

1<<3 Mixed regime

<1 Boundary regime

15
 Tribological contacts in hip joint inplants

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

Small amplitude motion (up to

100 µm) at the stem - cement or
stem - bone contact.
FRETTING WEAR

16
Outline
1. Short introduction to tribology
2. The natural synovial joint
3. The «
low friction
» artificial hip joint of
Charnley
4. The «
low wear
» artificial hip joint (metal on
metal)
5. Summary and perspectives

17
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

18
 Mechanical properties
Material Young modulus Yield strength
E [GPa] [MPa]
Cartilage 0.01 – 0.1

UHMWPE 0.5 - 1.5 15 - 20

Bone 10 - 30 120 – 150

Ti6Al4V 106 860

316 steel 205 515 – 860

CoCrMo alloy 230 655 – 860

Al2O3 350 300

19
Contact pressure
Load Load

Rigid (no deformation) Elastic (deformation)

Rh
Rc
Rc > Rh
Small area of contact Larger area of contact
High contact pressure Lower contact pressure

Example for Rh= 15 mm, Rc 15.05, 3000 N load

Contact Bone- cartilage 2 MPa Contact pressure
316L - UHMWPE 2
CoCr - UHMWPE 2
Bone - Bone 23
CoCr - CoCr 119
Al2O3 - Al2O3 157
20
(calculated using Hertz theory for elastic deformation)
Friction
Couple Coeff. of friction µ
Metal - Metal 0.4 - 0.8
Metal - Polymer 0.1 - 0.2
Polymer - Polymer 0.1 - 0.3

Conventional oil lubrication 0.03 - 0.1

Natural joint with synovial fluid 0.005 - 0.02

Natural joint without synovial fluid 0.2 - 0.3

21
Lubrication of the natural synovial joint
1. Boundary lubrication by adsorption of organic compounds of low shear
strength.

2. Hydrodynamic lubrication by liquid film squeezed into the contact by

motion.

3. Hydrostatic lubrication by a fluid film ejected from the cartilage (sponge)

when loading the joint (no motion necessary).

v
v

Boundary hydrodynamic hydrostatic

22
Outline

1. Short introduction into tribology

2. The natural synovial joint
3. The «
low friction
» artificial hip joint of
Charnley
4. The «
low wear
» artificial hip joint (metal on
metal)
5. Summary and perspectives

23
The concept of Charnley
To use a polymer on metal couple to reach:
1) Low friction
2) Low contact pressure

Polymer material
Metal First, Teflon was used
First stainless steel, but, because of its
afterwards CoCrMo extremely fast
alloys and hybrid wear,replaced by
structures with UHMWPE.
titanium stems and
ceramic or CoCrMo
heads.

24
 Wear of UHMWPE

A new knee prosthesis (left) and

one posthesis after 6 years clinical
use (right)

Pictures: C. Rieker et al Ed, in World Tribology Forum in Arthroplasty, Huber (2001)

25
Correlation between the in-vivo wear of PE cups
and clinical performance

26
 Consequences of wear

Loss of mechanical Bone resorption

functionality by particle disease

27
Particle disease
Activated by high concentrations of particles of 0.5 - 1 µm diameter

(Willert, Semlitsch 1974)

28
Effect of head roughness on in-vivo wear of
polyethilene

Analyses of explanted Charnley prostheses
(Fisher et al in Tribology Forum in Arthroplasty, C. Rieker et al Ed, 2001).

Artificial femoral Wear volume

head [mm3/106 cycles]

smooth 40 +/- 23

scratched 80 +/- 21

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SCRATCHING OF IMPLANT HEADS:
Effect of hardness

Apatite, one of the mineral Alumina

components of the bone, is
harder than the common
biomedical alloys.
Therefore scratching of
metal can occur.
CoCr, Ti alloys,
Alumina is much harder
Stainless steel
than Apatite and thus little
risk of scratching exists.

Data from
ASM Handbook Vol 18, Fricition, Wear and Lubrication
30
 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:
Sliding in Y Wear
weak bond in y

Y
X
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 Cross linking of UHMWPE
Initial structure Irradiation (
ray, e-beam)

- free radical

Cross linking Final structure

32
 Irradiation
Chain scission Free Radicals

Cross-linking Residual free radicals

Wear improvement Oxidation of UHMWPE

33
Outline
1. Short introduction to tribology
2. The «natural synovial joint
3. The «
low friction
» artificial hip joint of
Charnley
4. The «
low wear
» artificial hip joint (metal on
metal)
5. Summary and perspectives

34
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 Modern modular design with

(~1960 ) PE and Titanium support

35
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 Ed, Huber (2001) 36
 Materials for “ low wear“ hip joints
CoCrMo alloys Al2O3 ZrO2

E = 200 E = 390 E = 200

K = 20 K = 2-4 K = 6-9
H = 350 H =2000 H = 1200

E: Young Modulus [GPa] K: Fracture toughness [MPa
m]

H: Vickers hardness [HV]
37
Requirements for attaining Rq= 10 nm
hydrodynamic lubrication:

values calculated for
Rq= 45 nm
typical hip joints situations

Default values:
1 step / second
Diameter of head 28 mm
Clearance C 0.033 mm
Roughness Rq 10 nm Clearance [mm]
Viscosity 1.5 mPa s
Metal - Metal
Young Modulus 230 GPa
Poisson Coeff. 0.3
38
Outline
1. Short introduction to tribology
2. The «natural synovial joint
3. The «
low friction
» artificial hip joint of
Charnley
4. The «
low wear
» artificial hip joint (metal on
metal)
5. Summary and perspectives

39
 In-vivo wear rates
Cup Head Linear wear mm/year

Polyethylene Stainless Steel 0.1-0.3 ( Polyethylene)

Polyethylene CoCrMo-Metal 0.1-0.3 ( Polyethylene)

Polyethylene Al2O3-Ceramic 0.05-0.15 (Polyethylene)

CoCrMo-Metal CoCrMo-Metal 0.003-0.01 ( CoCrMo)

Al2O3-Ceramic Al2O3 -Ceramic 0.003-0.01 (Al2O3)

Annual linear wear rate of different material combinations as used

for cup and head in total hip replacement. (M. Semlitsch 1998)

40

Some future challenges (1)
Materials engineering
• To improve cross linking procedures for UHMWPE to reduce
the amount of residual free radicals.
• To improve ceramic processing to reduce the risk of structural
defects responsible for brittle failure.
•T

o improve surface hardness of alloys by surface treatments.
• To improve surface finish and precision in manufacturing
(control of clearance) to guarantee hydrodynamic lubrication.

41

Some future challenges (2)
Biomaterials science and tribology

• To identify the bio-tribo-chemical factors controlling the

release into the body of ions and nanoparticles from metal and
ceramic implants and their long term biocompatibility.

• To investigate in-vivo tribochemical reactions

on metal surfaces and their impact on tribology.

• To develop new soft materials as artificial cartilage providing

effective lubrication and low contact pressures.

42
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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