Finite element study of contact pressure distribution on inner and outer liner in the bipolar hip prosthesis

Wear in the hip prosthesis due to sliding contact as a product of human activity is a phenomenon which cannot be avoided. In general, there are two model of hip prostheses which are widely used in total hip replacement, i.e. unipolar and bipolar models. Wear in the bipolar model is more complex than the unipolar model due to its contact motion. The bipolar model has two contact mechanisms while the unipolar model has only one contact mechanism. It means that the bipolar model has two wear positions, i.e. wear on inner and outer liner surface. Fortunately, wear phenomena in the hip prosthesis can be predicted by analytical or numerical method. Wear on the inner and outer liner surface in the bipolar model itself can be early predicted by contact pressure distribution that is obtained from contact mechanic analysis.The contact pressure distribution itself is an essential variable in wear equations. This paper is aimed to studythe difference of the contact pressure distribution on the inner and outer liner surface in the bipolar model. To obtain the contact pressure distribution at each surface, contact mechanic analysis on the inner and outer liner surface by analytical and numerical method were performed. Results showedthat there was significant difference of the contact pressure distribution on the inner and outer liner surface in the bipolar model. Therefore, it is expected that there is significant wear difference on the inner and outer liner in the bipolar model