Hysteretic Heating During Cyclic Loading of Medical Grade Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE)

Ultra high molecular polyethylene (UHMWPE) is used in artificial knee joints and therefore subjected to cyclic loading. The hysteretic thermo-mechanical response of medical grade ultra high molecular weight polyethylene under compressive cyclic loading at high stress levels was investigated. It was shown that the repeated loading leads to heat dissipation that heavily alters the properties of the polyethylene and is crucial to its fatigue behaviour.