Squeaking friction phenomena in ceramic hip endoprosthesis: Modeling and experimental validation

The modern evolution of ceramic bearing surfaces for total hip arthroplasty has allowed longer implant longevity with lower amounts of osteolysis. It has been applied to younger patient expecting improved survivorship compared with traditional bearing surfaces. However, the phenomenon of an audible squeaking produced by implants during daily activities is reported as an annoying complication for patients. Although recent studies have been carried out on this topic, the origin of squeaking and the analysis of factors leading to this phenomenon are not completely identified. Numerical analyses are still not able to reproduce precisely the in vitro and in vivo observations. The lack of understanding on the physics of this issue is still an obstacle to find appropriate solutions to prevent it. In this paper, numerical and experimental approaches to reproduce squeaking are presented. A pre-stressed modal analysis is performed to identify the unstable eigenfrequencies that cause the vibrations and the perceived acoustic emission. The numerical results are validated by experiments on a laboratory test bench and the predicted frequencies are compared to the squeaking frequencies that can be found both in vitro and in vivo. The natural frequencies related to the femoral components are closer to the observed squeaking frequency. Simulations results confirmed that these vibrations are related to the stem dynamic response, which has a strong influence on the squeaking characteristic. In the other hand, the cup and the ceramic components play a main indirect role providing the frictional pair between the head and the liner. The analysis suggests that one of the possible mechanisms at the origin of squeaking is the modal coupling of two modes of vibration of the stem under frictional contact. The numerical model will allow for identifying the dominant factors and parameters affecting squeaking in order to avoid the unstable mode coupling. Squeaking can be reduced clinically by minimizing friction rising factors (such edge loading and situations promoting metal transfer or stripe wear) or by developing endoprosthesis design to avoid the unstable vibrations, regressing the squeaking emission to a negligible phenomenon.