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No description available.

No description available.

The tribological performance of internal joint prostheses is a fundamental influence on their longevity. The aim of this study is to characterise the tribological performance of the Porous Coated Anatomic total hip replacement by the analysis of 119 explanted prostheses. Investigations of the friction, wear, surface topography and wear debris were made and related to the joint's clinical performance. The friction of the joints at explant was similar to that of new prostheses. The median total wear volume (419mm(^3)) was found to agree with previous wear studies suggesting the existence of a threshold wear volume which promotes osteolysis. Clinical wear factor for the whole cohort matched that of alternative joint designs. The femoral head finish was shown to degrade but not in proportion to implant duration. The roughness of the UHMWPE liner was shown to fall but no relationship with any head roughness, or temporal, parameter could be distinguished. Simulator studies confirmed that the wear factor of a joint is likely to change over its lifespan. Wear models published previously describing the influence of femoral head roughness on wear could not predict the performance of explanted prostheses. An alternative relationship was observed indicating that head roughness is not as powerful a predictor of wear as previously held. A novel technique for the characterisation of the size distribution of ex vivo and in vitro wear debris was developed. A Low-Angle Laser Light Scattering Particle Analyser was used to size particles continuously over a range from 0.5 to 1000μm. This technique offers considerable unprovement over existing microscope-based methods in terms of the detail of the information and does so with less experimental effort. It was shown to be highly accurate and repeatable in preliminary investigations. Case studies of five tissue samples revealed the potential of this method.

No description available.

This thesis was written for a Swedish valve manufacturer to find out in what temperature regimes it was possible to replace electroplated hard chromium with autocatalytic electroless nickel-phosphorus. In this work the dry sliding wear properties of electroplated hard chromium and autocatalytic electroless nickel-phosphorus(10% P) were compared. All tests and investigations were done by using available equipment at Karlstads University. The tests were made to find out how the wear of these coatings behaved at different temperatures, how different substrates influence the wear of these coatings and how the roughness of the substrate surface influence the wear properties of these coatings. The method used for the wear tests was block-on-ring with a counterformal contact mode. The tests were executed in room temperature, 300C and 400C; with a normal load of 100N, sliding speed was 150rpm and duration of the tests were 15 minutes. All tests were done in an argon gas atmosphere. The coatings was deposited onto the cylinders with a thickness of 30µm. The different substrates used were an austenitic stainless steel(1.4404) and an austenitic-ferritic(duplex) stainless steel(1.4460). Half of the austenitic cylinders had a machined surface and all the others(including duplex cylinders) were machined and grinded to achieve a smoother surface. The blocks used as countersurface were made out of austenitic-ferritic(duplex) stainless steel(1.4460). Equipment used to investigate the wear tracks were stereo microscopy, profilometer, microhardness tester and scanning electron microscopy(SEM). The coatings were investigated in matter such as wear depth, wear mode, wear mechanism, chemical composition, topography, morphology, cross-section and hardness. The results of this work showed that the nickel coating wear tracks maximal depth were less deep than those of hard chrome, at room temperature. At elevated temperatures the performance varies. The coatings deposited onto cylinders made out of duplex stainless steel performed better than those deposited onto austenitic cylinders. The nickel coating performed better deposited onto the substrates with smooth surface and the chrome coating performed better deposited onto the substrates with rough surface

Airborne particles and their adverse effects on air quality have been recognized by humans since ancient times. Current exhaust emission legislations increase the relative contribution of wear particles on the PM levels. Consequently, wear-based particle emissions from rail and road transport have raised concerns as ground transportation is developing quickly. Although scientific research on airborne wear-based particles started in 1909, there is almost no legislation that control the generation of wear-based particles. In addition, there is no accepted and approved standard measurement technique for monitoring and recording particle characteristics. The main objective of this study is to review recent experimental work in this field and to discuss their set-ups, the sampling methods, the results, and their limitations, and to propose measures for reducing these limitations.

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 1997

Thesis (PhD (Metallurgical Engineering))--University of South Australia, 1997