FRACTURE TOUGHNESS OF A MEDICAL GRADE ULTRA HIGH MOLECULAR WEIGHT POLYETHYLENE USING A SINGLE SPECIMEN METHOD

摘要

Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) has been extensively used in total knee arthroplasty because of its superior physical and mechanical properties. Fracture toughness and fatigue crack growth of UHMWPE has been widely accepted as critical to the structural performance of orthopedic implant bearings. Literature search revealed that the most commonly used techniques to determine the fracture toughness of UHMWPE material are the multi-specimen and single specimen normalization method. In this paper, a novel single specimen method was used to determine the resistance to fracture of GUR 1050 material during a stable crack extension. The crack length extension was obtained using digital microscopy and photogrammetric methods. The test results obtained were compared to the other multi-specimen method data published in the literature.