Effect of 3D physiological loading and motion on elastohydrodynamic lubrication of metal-on-metal total hip replacements

Abstract An elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) simulation of a metal-on-metal (MOM) total hip implant was presented, considering both steady state and transient physiological loading and motion gait cycle in all three directions. The governing equations were solved numerically by the multi-grid method and fast Fourier transform in spherical coordinates, and full numerical solutions were presented included the pressure and film thickness distribution. Despite small variations in the magnitude of 3D resultant load, the horizontal anterior–posterior (AP) and medial–lateral (ML) load components were found to translate the contact area substantially in the corresponding direction and consequently to result in significant squeeze-film actions. For a cup positioned anatomically at 45°, the variation of the resultant load was shown unlikely to cause the edge contact. The contact area was found within the cup dimensions of 70–130° and 90–150° in the AP and ML direction respectively even under the largest translations. Under walking conditions, the horizontal load components had a significant impact on the lubrication film due to the squeeze-film effect. The time-dependent film thickness was increased by the horizontal translation and decreased during the reverse of this translation caused by the multi-direction of the AP load during walking. The minimum film thickness of 12–20 nm was found at 0.4 s and around the location at (95, 125)°. During the whole walking cycle both the average and centre film thickness were found obviously increased to a range of 40–65 nm, compared with the range of 25–55 nm under one load (vertical) and one motion (flexion–extension) condition, which suggested the lubrication in the current MOM hip implant was improved under 3D physiological loading and motion. This study suggested the lubrication performance especially the film thickness distribution should vary greatly under different operating conditions and the time and location that potential wear may occur was very sensitive to specific loading and motion conditions. This may provide some explanation to the large variations in wear from hip simulators and clinical studies, and also stress the importance of using more realistic loading and motion conditions in the tribological study of MOM hip prostheses.