Lu, X., Liang, M., Meng, Q. orcid.org/0000-0002-6708-5585 et al. (1 more author) (2025) Effects of gait patterns on the viscoelastic squeeze-film lubrica-tion of hip replacements. Lubricants, 13 (3). 131. ISSN 2075-4442
Abstract
The present study investigated the influence of various gait patterns on the viscoelastic squeeze-film lubrication characteristics of UHMWPE-based artificial hip replacements. Different gait loads (slow walking, normal walking, slow running) measured by Bergmann et al. were adopted in the present lubrication simulation. A comprehensive squeeze-film lubrication model for UHMWPE hip replacement was developed and numerically solved to determine the spatial distributions of film thickness and pressure profiles. The results showed that physiological loads had a negligible impact on the minimum film thicknesses during the stand phases. However, they significantly enhanced the minimum film thicknesses in both the elastic (1.16–1.31 times) and viscoelastic models (1.43–2.85 times) during the swing phases when compared to constant loads. This improvement was notably more pronounced in the viscoelastic model than in the elastic model. The slow-running gait, characterized by its higher frequency, demonstrated a more pronounced enhancement in squeeze-film lubrication of UHMWPE artificial hip joints compared to both normal-walking and slow-walking gaits. Specifically, the minimum film thicknesses during slow running were found to be 1.15 to 1.35 times greater than those observed during normal walking and 1.33 to 1.66 times greater than those during slow walking, highlighting the superior lubrication performance in the slow running case.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | squeeze-film lubrication; viscoelasticity; artificial hip replacements; physiological loading; gait patterns |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mechanical Engineering (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 20 Mar 2025 17:57 |
Last Modified: | 20 Mar 2025 17:57 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/lubricants13030131 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:224604 |