Analysis on Wear Phenomenon of Artificial Knee Joint Based on FEM and Mechanical Test

Fretting corrosion is studied to understand its influence on the structural integrity of osteosynthesis implants between contact areas of artificial joints. With the artificial knee joints becoming more important comes a growing concern that the friction corrosion at the interface of an artificial knee joint may cause the shortening of its life. This paper aims to analyze the wear phenomenon following the material characteristics on the structural integrity of osteosynthesis implants between the contact areas of artificial joints with fretting corrosion. A finite element analysis was conducted to confirm the stress concentration position at the contact area during load application. Concentrated stress occurred in the central part of the modular tibial tray and the augment joint. The modular artificial knee joints were threaded and subjected to loads up to 90 N to 900 N and 20 Hz frequency according to the fatigue test method of ASTM F1800-12 and ASTM F 1875–98. The fatigue test showed no visual fracture caused by the cyclic load on the contact portion after 10,000,000cycles. However, mechanically assisted corrosion is a serious concern for metallic biomaterials in all applications. Therefore, additional research on the surface morphology of the material is needed to determine the wear mechanism.