Premium
Comparison of the fatigue behaviour of two different forms of PMMA
Author(s) -
HOEY D.,
TAYLOR D.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
fatigue and fracture of engineering materials and structures
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.887
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1460-2695
pISSN - 8756-758X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1460-2695.2009.01327.x
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , cement , porosity , fatigue limit , microstructure , acrylic resin , composite number , bone cement , coating
ABSTRACT This study investigates the fatigue behaviour of two forms of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA): pure PMMA in the form of acrylic glass and PMMA‐based bone cement. Acrylic glass demonstrated superior fatigue strength compared to hand‐mixed porous bone cement but was significantly weaker than pore‐free bone cement. The greater fatigue strength of bone cement in comparison to acrylic glass was attributed to its composite‐like microstructure, containing pre‐polymerized beads which are absent in the amorphous structure of acrylic glass. In tests conducted on notched specimens, the porous bone cement demonstrated superior fatigue strength to acrylic glass. The results could be predicted using the theory of critical distances, with errors no larger than 14%. This approach allowed us to show that, although porosity had a negative influence on the fatigue strength of the plain specimens in comparison to acrylic glass, the presence of porosity had no effect when the samples contained a notch or a hole. This finding is interesting when considering the effort put into removing porosity from bone cement during surgical operations, where it is used in situations where there are sharp stress concentrations in the form of protruding bone and the design features of artificial implants.