Stress Transfer Modeling at the Interface of Cemented Prosthesis and Femur

YU Xue-zhong; GUO Yi-mu; ZHANG Yun-qiu; LI Jun; HE Rong-xing

摘要：.Objective:To model the stress transfer at the interface of the cemented prosthesis and femur, an axisymmetric model of the interfacial stress transfer was established.Methods: Assuming that the prosthesis, the cement and the femur were concentric cylinders with linear elastic and isotropic properties, distributions of the axial stresses in the prosthesis, the cement and the femur as well as the interfacial shear stresses at the prosthesis/cement interface and the cement/femur interface in the axial direction were obtained from the established axisymmetric stress transfer model.Results: Interfacial failure was the main form for the prosthesis/cement/femur structure under external loads. Considering the residual thermal stresses, it was more likely to produce the mixed failure form than the pure shear failure form. Since the cement had a relatively high thermal expansion coefficient, the thermal effect accelerated the interface failure and thus aggravated the stress shielding effect. Due to a relatively high thermal residual temperature difference, the interfacial debonding and femur failure was more likely to occur for the cobalt-chromium alloy prosthesis material than the Ti-6Al-4V alloy prosthesis material.Conclusion: Assuming that the prosthesis, the cement and the femur are concentric cylinders with linear elastic and isotropic properties, distributions of the axial stresses in the prosthesis, the cement and the femur as well as the interfacial shear stresses at the prosthesis/cement interface and the cement/femur interface in the axial direction was obtained using the basic equations of axisymmetric elastic mechanics when the prosthesis bears the compressive stresses. Interface failure is the main failure form for the prosthesis/cement/femur structure under external loads. The thermal effects accelerate the failure of the prosthesis/cement interface and the cement/femur interface and the relaxation of the prosthesis, and then aggravates the stress shielding effect of the femur. Also, the thermal effects decrease the efficiencies of the interfacial stress transfer to some extent since it alleviates the failure of the interface and the femur, which was confirmed by the clinical results.