Abstract
Titanium and its alloys which have been widely used in many prostheses carry the major joint load and cause stress shielding. Thus, the bone might become osteoporotic due to lack of physiological stress flow in common hip replacement. Therefore, the optimization of hip joint materials is one of the most challenging tasks in prosthetic design. It is found in the literature that there is a great contradiction regarding the use of hydroxyapatite (HAP) coating. In this study a finite element analysis (FEA) and optimization techniques have been carried out in order to find a new design of hip stem coating using functionally graded material (FGM) to reduce stress shielding at the proximal medial part of the femur, as well as reducing the interface shear stress at the interface between the coating and the bone which directly affects the implantation and long-term stability. This work is divided into two parts: in the first part, the gradation of the elastic modulus of the coating material has been changed in the vertical direction, while the second part changes the elastic modulus in the horizontal direction. The optimal design of the first and second models was compared with HAP coating and with homogenous uncoated titanium stem. The design optimization of the first model revealed, using a coating material consisting of HAP at the upper layer of the coating graded to collagen at the lower layer, increases the maximum von Mises stress in bone at the proximal medial part of the femur by 65 % and 19 % compared to titanium stem and titanium coated with HAP, respectively. The maximum lateral interface shear stress in the bone at the bone/coating interface is reduced by 23 % and 12 %, respectively. However, the maximum medial interface shear stress in the bone at the bone/coating interface is reduced by 39 % and 14% compared to titanium stem and titanium coated with HAP, respectively. The design optimization of the second model revealed, using a coating material consisting of collagen at the inner layer adjacent to stem graded to HAP at the outer layer adjacent to bone, increases the maximum von Mises stress at the proximal medial part of the femur by 60 % and 15 % compared to titanium stem and titanium coated with HAP, respectively. The maximum lateral interface shear stress is reduced by 18 % and 6 %, respectively. However, the maximum medial interface shear stress is reduced by 35 % and 8 % compared to titanium stem and titanium coated with HAP, respectively.