Investigation of stress and tribological properties of dental composite materials using FEM

Performance of dental materials is influenced by the abrasion and wear qualities of the materials in contact. Despite major advancements in dental materials over the previous few decades, restorative materials, particularly composite resins, continue to wear out. Wear resistance is directly influenced by several composite resin composition and structure characteristics. The focus of this research is to explore the tribological properties of two commercially available dental composite materials using ANSYS software (Tetric N-Ceram and Z350 Dentin Shade). In the experiment, a simple tribo-system that complies with American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) G99 is utilised, consisting of a cylinder-shaped pin that can be deformed, rotating around a disc under wet conditions. A comparison of Z350 dentin shade and Tetric n Ceram simulations for the same load and simulation time revealed that the former material had greater wear resistance. Simulation results showed that as the stress on the pin increases, wear for both materials increases, which is supported by experiment data from the pin-on-disc tribometer setup.