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An investigation of friction and lubrication of coated hip joint replacement
Balcárek, Ondřej ; Horák, Zdeněk (referee) ; Nečas, David (advisor)
The thesis focused on studying the effects of a new hydrogel coating and material combinations on the coefficient of friction and formation of lubricating film in the conformal contact of hip joint replacement. Experiments were conducted using a ball-on-cup configuration with a hip pendulum simulator. The formation of the lubricating film was observed using fluorescence microscopy. The results showed that the application of the coating did not have a clear impact on the coefficient of friction. However, for pairs with a coated cup, there was a reduction in CoF by approximately 20%. Generally, lower friction was observed when using a ceramic joint head. Surprisingly, even more interesting results were obtained in the lubrication analysis, where the use of metal heads led to a reduction in the thickness of the lubricating layer. Ceramic pairs exhibited very stable behavior. In addition to friction and lubrication, the topography of the implants was further evaluated, and their wettability was analysed. Although the polymer coating was expected to be highly hydrophilic, the surface properties were only slightly influenced, which partly explains why there was no significant improvement in the tribological behavior of the replacement. As the coating applied is already patented and its effectiveness in reducing wear has been clearly demonstrated, it is appropriate to investigate this issue further, with more attention being paid to long-term experiments. Based on the obtained data, it appears that the short-term benefits of the coating are practically negligible. However, it is important to highlight that, except for minor exceptions, the application of the coating did not lead to a deterioration of properties, which is a significant outcome of this work.
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