Effect of Coating Materials on the Fatigue Behavior of Hip Implants: A Three-dimensional Finite Element Analysis

This study aims to validate, using finite element analysis (FEA), the design concept by comparing the fatigue behavior of hip implant stems coated with composite (carbon/PEEK) and polymeric (PEEK) coating materials corresponding to different human activities: standing up, normal walking and climbing stairs under dynamic loadings to find out which of all these models have a better performance in the prosthesis-bone systems. A 3D finite element models of hip implants, femur, coating layers with polymeric (PEEK) and composite (carbon/PEEK) coating materials are created for FEA. The cyclic loads are applied on the prosthesis head. Fatigue life durations are calculated based on the Goodman mean-stress fatigue theory. The fatigue safety factor for the coated implant is increased more than 12.73% at least compared to the uncoated implant. The carbon/PEEK composite material with 0, +45, -45, and 90 degrees fiber orientation (configuration I) has the highest fatigue life and fatigue safety factor. The numerical result show that the carbon/PEEK composite material (configuration I) seems to be a good solution to increase the values of fatigue safety factor of coating layers due to highest fatigue life and fatigue safety factor. It distributes the applied load and transfers it to the bone, reducing stress-shielding effects and prolong the bone-prosthesis system life span.