Friction measurement in a hip wear simulator.

A torque measurement system was added to a widely used hip wear simulator, the biaxial rocking motion device. With the rotary transducer, the frictional torque about the drive axis of the biaxial rocking motion mechanism was measured. The principle of measuring the torque about the vertical axis above the prosthetic joint, used earlier in commercial biaxial rocking motion simulators, was shown to sense only a minor part of the total frictional torque. With the present method, the total frictional torque of the prosthetic hip was measured. This was shown to consist of the torques about the vertical axis above the joint and about the leaning axis. Femoral heads made from different materials were run against conventional and crosslinked polyethylene acetabular cups in serum lubrication. Regarding the femoral head material and the type of polyethylene, there were no categorical differences in frictional torque with the exception of zirconia heads, with which the lowest values were obtained. Diamond-like carbon coating of the CoCr femoral head did not reduce friction. The friction factor was found to always decrease with increasing load. High wear could increase the frictional torque by 75%. With the present system, friction can be continuously recorded during long wear tests, so the effect of wear on friction with different prosthetic hips can be evaluated.