Wear mechanism of biomedical carbon/carbon composites for artificial hip joints

A hip joint simulator was employed to predict the clinical wear behavior with testing conditions of a cross-path motion, a constant load and a lubricant of serum. The worn surface and the wear particles generated were analyzed by scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectroscope and laser particle size analyzer. The results show that the biomedical C/C composites for artificial hip joints have different wear features according to the carbon fibre orientation. Their wear particles have four kinds of morphologies with a size ranging from submicron to tens of micrometers. The wear mechanisms are mainly micro-cutting and abrasive wear.