Title: Torsional fretting wear behaviour of nature articular cartilage in vitro

Authors: Zhen-bing Cai; Shan-shan Gao; Xue-qi Gan; Hai-yang Yu; Min-hao Zhu

Addresses: Tribology Research Institute, Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Ministry of Education, Chengdu, 610031, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China. ' Tribology Research Institute, Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Ministry of Education, Chengdu, 610031, China

Abstract: Torsional wear tests of bovine hip joint articular cartilage against Al2O3 femoral heads with a diameter of 28 mm were carried out on a new torsional fretting wear apparatus. The damage characteristics of articular cartilage were discussed in detail based on an analysis of frictional kinetics behaviors, SEM observations, and hematoxylin-eosin staining. The results indicated that the behaviors of torsional wear were strongly dependent on angular displacement amplitudes and the number of cycles, which can be characterized by the curves of friction torque/angular displacement (T-). Three kinds of T- curves (i.e., linear, parallelogram, and elliptical curves) were observed during the process of torsional fretting wear and during the use of articular cartilage while running in partial slip and gross slip conditions. Along the radial direction, the wear scar could be divided into three parts, namely, the central sticking zone, the radial ridges and micro-crazes zone, and the detachment zone. With an increase in angular displacement amplitude, the netlike shape ridge can be observed along the radial direction from the contact center. The wear mechanisms of the cartilage was mainly similar to fatigue wear or similar to the mechanism of delamination in metal materials.

Keywords: articular cartilage; torsional fretting; damage mechanism; fretting wear; bovine hip joints; delamination.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSURFSE.2011.044387

International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering, 2011 Vol.5 No.5/6, pp.348 - 368

Received: 29 Apr 2011
Accepted: 30 Apr 2011
Published online: 14 Oct 2014 *

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