Abstract: Artificial knee joint simulation wear test is an important requirement to evaluate artificial knee components in the design and production stages. This paper reviews recent advances in the artificial knee joint simulation test bench and the corresponding bio-tribological test. Artificial knee joint simulation includes three types, i.e. spherical contact type, type that forces and motions were directly applied and knee muscle force reconstruction type. The requirements and characteristics of the three kinds of experiments were discussed. The standards of artificial knee joint bio-tribological experiment were introduced. It is suggested to develop experiment in vivo, expand the measure range of body motion, and focus on synergistic effects of multi-factor on the wear mechanism of artificial knee joint and establish unified experimental standard for artificial knee joint.

Key words: artificial knee joint, biotribology, friction and wear behavior

Author: Wang Chengtao,School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200240, China

E-mail: trib@sjtu.edu.cn

Tribology, Vol. 29, Issue 5, 2009, 481-488