Effect of surface texturing on the elastohydrodynamic lubrication analysis of metal-on-metal hip implants

With the development of surface processing techniques, applications of bearing components have been introduced with specific surface textures to take advantage of lubrication. An advanced numerical model was established to simulate the mixed EHL problem of a metal-on-metal hip prosthesis with dimpled surface texturing. The surface texture with simple cylindrical dimples was numerically simulated, under both steady state and walking conditions. The present results showed that surface texturing may have a potentially beneficial effect on the reduction of asperity contact ratio and the improvement of lubrication performance of metal-on-metal hip replacements, particularly under predominant boundary lubrication conditions.