On the Role of Surface Roughness in Ankle Joint Replacements

Puneet Katyal

doi:10.37591/rrjophy.v5i3.439

Abstract

AbstractResearch efforts in biomechanics have geared towards the long-term effectiveness andsurvival of total joint replacements, because of osteoarthritis causes loosening, instability,wear of articulating components and finally loss of function. Surface roughness of articulatingcomponents significantly influences their tribological behavior. Other factors affecting thewear of articulating surfaces include material and geometrical properties. In this work, thehuman ankle joint is represented by an equivalent ellipsoid-on-plane model to study the effectof surface roughness on the pressure profile, film shape, minimum film thickness, lambdaratio ( λ ) and coefficient of friction in total joint replacements under steady-state conditions.The main purpose here is to promote fluid film lubrication and therefore, reduce wear inankle joint replacements.Keywords: EHL, Surface roughness, film thicknessCite this ArticlePuneet Katyal. On the role of surface roughness in ankle joint replacements. Research & Reviews: Journal of Physics. 2016; 5(3): 48–55p.