Parametric analysis for the design of hip joint replacement simulators

Abstract

The simulation of wear, between the components of artificial hip joint implants, is a complicated problem that does not have a robust analytical answer yet. Many studies have been conducted to predict the wear between the femur head and the acetabular cup, as the debris generated due to the wear might produce adverse effects after the surgery. Hip joint simulators provide a means to quantify the amount of wear in preclinical settings, as an in vitro method. However, this brings some other challenges in terms of bio-fidelity. The simulators use force and range of motion data as input and provide wear information as an output. For this reason, it is important to be able to simulate the realistic conditions, by the proper transmission of force and position controlling of the components. Many studies performed on wear simulators but none of them worked on the machine parameters such as power consumption and sensitivity to external inputs in detail. In this study, we perform a sensitivity analysis of the factors affecting the forces acting on the femur head. In silico simulations were performed by changing the values of acting force, friction coefficient, and radius of femur head to understand the effects of each parameter on the frictional moment of the joint. These analyses demonstrate the importance of using correct parameters while designing simulators, which accept flexible boundary conditions. The architecture of the hip simulator was also investigated for the first time. The results are expected to pave the way for improving the bio-fidelity of the simulators in the field of biomechanics.