Acoustic Testing of Hip Prosthesis Loosening

摘要

A means of diagnosing the loosening of cemented stem hip prostheses was investigated. The method involves imparting a stress wave in the prosthesis by electromagnetic induction. The characteristics of the resulting vibrations are monitored with an acoustic transducer and parameters such as damping ratio and natural frequency permit the determination of the prosthesis boundary conditions. This experimental work showed the electromagnetic excitation method to be practical and a breadboard version of the system was designed and tested. Acoustic testing was conducted using the breadboard excitation system on several different physical models designed to simulate the loosening of hip prostheses.