Tribological behavior of biomaterial for total hip prosthesis

Abstract

Friction and wear plays an important role in determining the performance of biomaterials. To this end, the present research is carried out to understand the tribological behavior important biometallic alloy, Ti-6Al-4V under sliding contact. The friction and wear experiments were carried out using ball-ondisc and pin-on-disc tribometers in ambient air, under different conditions of normal applied loads (3, 6 and 10 N) and sliding speeds (1, 15 and 25 mm.s−1) for 3000 m. The obtained research results revealed the lowest coefficient of friction was 0.038 at 1 mm.s−1 and 3 N) while the higher value was in the range of 0.90 at 25 mm.s−1 and 3 N). Results show that the specimens have similar friction and wear performance, although the sliding speed and applied loads are different. The tribomechanical wear, as evident from the observation of abrasion, adhesion and cracking, is the predominant wear mechanism.