Experimental and submodeling technique to investigate the wear of silicon nitride against Ti6Al4V alloy with bio-lubricants for various gait activities

Abstract

The present work focused on analyzing the wear and friction coefficients of Si3N4 against titanium alloy grade 5 material using ball-on-disc tribometer for a sliding distance of 20 km with five different bio-lubricants. Later using finite element submodeling technique, post implantation wear is predicted for 2 years considering four different gait activities which includes normal walking, stairs down 25 kg, carrying 25 kg and lifting 40 kg. The friction coefficient value is found to be least for sesame oil. The increase in percentage difference in friction coefficients for phosphate buffer saline (PBS), distilled water, Ringer's solution and saline solution are 77.27%, 81.81%, 84.09% and 86.36% when compared with sesame oil. The percentage difference in reduction in wear coefficients for sesame oil, saline solution, Ringer's solution and PBS are 36.49%, 48.81%, 56.11% and 84.36%. The linear and volumetric wear is found to be quite low for all gait activities for PBS bio-lubricant. Overall the least linear and volumetric wear are obtained for normal walking gait activity followed by Stair down 25 kg, Carrying 25 kg and Lifting 40 kg gait activity.