Degradation of alumina and zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) hip prostheses tested under microseparation conditions in a shock device

摘要

This paper considers the degradation of alumina and zirconia toughenedalumina vs. alumina for hip implants. The materials are as assumed to be loadbearing surfaces subjected to shocks in wet conditions. The load is a peak offorce; 9 kN was applied over 15 ms at 2 Hz for 800,000 cycles. The volumetricwear and roughness are lower for ZTA than for alumina. The long ZTA ageing didnot seem to have a direct influence on the roughness. The ageing increased thewear volumes of ZTA and it was found to have a higher wear resistance comparedto alumina.