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Defect‐induced fatigue microcrack formation in cement mantle
Author(s) -
Qi Gang,
Li Jihui,
Mouchon W. Paul,
Lewis Gladius
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.30446
Subject(s) - materials science , fatigue testing , scanning electron microscope , crystallographic defect , composite material , cement , crystallography , chemistry
Acoustic emission (AE) was used to monitor the progress of the fatigue damage process in the cement mantles of two cemented femur stem constructs that contained naturally occurring defects. After the fatigue tests, morphological features of the defects were investigated using an environmental scanning electron microscope. It showed that the regions with no visible defects were mainly microcrack free, whereas the defect regions were the main sources generating microcracks. Two types of microcracks were identified: type I and type II. Signal energies associated with type I microcracks were about an order of magnitude higher than that of type II. The microstructural investigations of the defects and the areas in the vicinity of the defects suggested their categorization into stable and unstable. The accumulative energy–time relationships revealed that stable and unstable microcrack curves had convex, and concave shapes, respectively. The progress of fatigue microcrack formation occurred over three distinct phases: initiation, transition, and stableness. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2005