Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of sliding locus on fatigue destruction of ultra‐high‐molecular‐weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) in order to design a durable total knee arthroplasty (TKA) articulation. Two‐dimensional sliding fatigue testing was performed under two simplified patterns of articulating interface sliding locus. Scanning acoustic tomography (SAT) was used for observation of subsurface cracks in UHMWPE specimens. A high rate of subsurface crack formation was observed when the movement was reciprocated on two different loci, in contrast with that on a single linear locus. This finding suggests that crack formation or propagation in UHMWPE components is accelerated not only by the compressive stress but also by complicated articulating movement locus.
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