Temperature field and wear prediction for UHMWPE acetabular cup with assumed rectangular surface texture

Surface texture design of a tribo-pair affects its tribological behaviors and temperature distribution, subsequently its performance behaviors and servicing life. Numerical simulation and experiment to study the influence of rectangular texture, on UHMWPE acetabular cup reciprocally slid with steel ball was performed. Results demonstrated the occurrence of periodical and regular fluctuation of the surface temperatures in the cup and ball in accordance with the swing of the ball arm. Higher temperature and amplitude of fluctuation were observed in the ball for cup/steel-ball pairs. Predicted temperature for steel ball sliding in UHMWPE cup with rectangular texture is close and comparable with experimental data under steady state. Prediction reveals that: (i) increase in load and frequency increases the wear depths; (ii) wear of rectangular texture for the condition of short sliding time seems agreeable with experimental data; (iii) thermal effect changes the service performance of UHMWPE after a significant long period of operation that may be explained by the viscoelastic behavior of polymer; and (iv) thermal effect is likely to accelerate the degradation of polymer.