• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.449-455
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• 2010

A ceramic articulating system in total hip replacement thought to be superior to metal-on-polyethylene due to its extremely low coefficient of friction and potential for high resistance to wear. But ceramic is brittle, which makes it mechanically and theoretically susceptible to fracture under certain mechanical conditions. In the current study, nine different models of ceramic ball heads were mechanically evaluated using 3D finite element(FE) analyses. It was found that the maximum stress in all ceramic models was lower than ceramic flexural strength, and it satisfied the requirements of the FDA Gaudience for artificial hip implant. Thus, ceramic ball head models introduced in the current study could be mechanically safe for clinical applications.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.680-685
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• 2012

Ceramic femoral heads are now widely used in Total Hip Replacement (THR). Due to their high biocompatibility and low ductility, ceramic femoral heads are considered to be suitable for young and active patients. However, as in testing the mechanical stability of the femoral head, the conventional proof test (standard ISO 7206-10) has its limit of showing axisymmetric stress distribution on the contact surface, while non-uniformed stress distribution is expected after THR. Since non-uniformed stress distribution can result in the increased probability of ceramic femoral head fracture, it is considerable to evaluate the stress distribution in vivo-like conditions. Therefore, this study simulated the ceramic femoral heads under in vivo-like conditions using finite element method. The maximum stress decreased when increasing the size of the femoral head and stress distribution was concentrated on superior contact surface of the taper region.