No CrossRef data available.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2011
Owing to the interest in ever increasing lifetimes for total hip prostheses, possible failure due to aseptic loosening of the acetabular component is an issue that may require increased attention. Mechanical factors, especially the deformation behavior of the material and the stress distribution at the implant-cement and the bone-cement interfaces, presumably play an essential role in total hip failure. Therefore the experimental model of the present work makes use of rosette strain gauge techniques to evaluate the deformation behavior of cemented polyethylene cups under quasi-static loading. Standard tests in UHMWPE beam specimens confirmed that the present method is a reliable tool for strain measurements in the polymer that was tested. On the other hand, the apparent elastic modulus of UHMWPE can be shown to be markedly dependent on the testing method, the geometry, and, owing to the visco-elastic properties, dependent on the strain rate. Thus in the present work a correlation between the measured strain and the ultimate strength was not attempted. Instead a parametric analysis quantifying the influence of the cup thickness and the cement distribution on the strain pattern was performed.