ARTICLE IN PRESS

Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Tribology International
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/triboint

An elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) model of wear particle migration in

an articial hip joint
Sunny M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA

a r t i c l e in f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A full uid ball-in-socket elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) analysis of an articial hip joint made
Received 18 August 2009 of a metallic femoral head and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) acetabular cup
Received in revised form was considered. Since articial hips operate in a mixed lubrication mode, wear occurs and wear
19 December 2009
particles lead to reduced hip lifetimes. This study involves simulating these particles within the
Accepted 21 December 2009
Available online 4 January 2010
lubrication regime. Hip deformation was compared to models employing nite element analysis and
the spherical fast-Fourier transform technique. Particle modeling results were compared to suspension
Keywords: modeling experiments by other researchers. Results show a strong inuence of lubricant uid velocity
Particle modeling on that of the wear particles.
Elastohydrodynamic lubrication
& 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Articial hip joint

1. Introduction
The tribology of articial hip replacements is a subject of
worldwide research. Currently, more than 800,000 hip joints are
being replaced every year [1]. A majority of them consist of a
metallic or ceramic femoral head articulating against an ultra-high
molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) acetabular cup. The load
acting on the joint is supported by the synovial uid in the interface.
These joints may last up to 25 years with good implantation in the
body and under predominantly normal walking conditions, but with
younger adults having active lifestyles opting for such replacements,
their average life span has reduced to roughly 1015 years.
According to earlier experimental ndings, a high concentration of
submicron UHMWPE particles has been found in the synovial uid
of failed replacements [24]. Accumulation of these particles over
the years sparks intense macrophage activity, resulting in osteolysis
and the loosening of the prosthesis [18]. Therefore, considerable
research is focused on minimizing the wear rates in these hip joints
to ensure that they have sustained performance over the lifetime of
the joint.
Several studies have been carried out in the past which are
focused on various factors responsible for deterioration of hip joint
prostheses. Meyer and Tichy [9] analyzed lm thickness and uid
pressures in the articulating joints based on numerical results and
experimental data obtained in vivo with respect to simulating
walking and bicycling conditions. They determined that full non-
contact lubrication is achieved for roughly 10% of the walking cycle,
 Corresponding author.
E-mail address: higgs@andrew.cmu.edu (C. Fred Higgs III).
indicating that extensive abrasive wear of the UHMWPE cup occurs
due to contact with the head during articulation. Studies by
Schmalzried et al. [4], Kobayashi et al. [2,10] and Shanbhag et al. [3]
were based on determination of the geometric characteristics and
concentration of the wear particles found in tissues obtained from
failed replacements. A separate study by Schmalzried and his
colleagues [11] dened the concept of effective joint space, which
extends the reach of the synovial uid beyond the region between
articulating bearings. Thus, regions surrounding the prosthesis
could transport more particulates to the interface. Morscher et al.
[12] were among the rst to report instances of third-body wear by
hydroxyapatite crystals. Using a nite element method (FEM)
model, Raimondi et al. [6] were successful in reproducing the
indentations on the femoral head and acetabular cups during
three-body wear, and characterizing the wear induced based on
geometry of third-body debris. Further studies have focused on the
inuence of geometric properties such as the size of the head [13],
as well as the effects of using cross-linked polyethylene as cup
material on wear [14].
Although not in the articial hip joint community, a number of
studies have examined the motion of third-body particles in a
sliding tribosystem. Phan-Thien et al. [15] presented experimental
evidence of particle migration in a concentrated uid suspension,
while Shapley et al. [16] measured velocity uctuations in a shear
cell apparatus of the same. Terrell and Higgs [17], Lin et al. [18] and
Shen and Bogy [19] have conducted similar studies in their
respective domains, namely, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP)
and air bearing sliders in hard disk drive technology. These three
modeling studies treated the uid as a continuum and ascertained
the path of the particles based on the forces acting on them over
time due to the surrounding ow eld. However, their domains are

0301-679X/$ - see front matter & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.triboint.2009.12.069
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
S.M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III / Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338 1327

Nomenclature p hydrodynamic pressure, Pa

Pe Brownian Peclet number
ap particle radius, m r radial direction of hip joint, m
e coefcient of restitution Rep particle Reynolds number
e x ; e y ; ez eccentricities of the head in x, y, z directions, m R1 radius of femoral head, m
ewet coefcient of restitution for wet collisions (in uid) R2 radius of acetabular cup, m
edry coefcient of restitution for dry collisions (in air) St Stokes number
fx ; fy ; fz load supported by hydrodynamic pressure in x, y, z t time, s
directions, N T temperature, K
Fr ; Ff ; Fy force applied on the particle in r; f; y directions, N u1 ; u2 velocities of bodies 1 and 2 before collision, m/s
Fd;r ; Fd;f ; Fd;y viscous drag force acting on a particle in r; f; y v 1 ; v2 velocities of bodies 1 and 2 after collision, m/s
directions, N vr ; vf ; vy uid velocity in r; f; y directions, m/s
Fs;r ; Fs;f ; Fs;y Saffman forces acting on a particle in r; f; y vr;p ; vf;p ; vy;p particle velocity in r; f; y directions, m/s
directions, N g_ mean shear rate of uid, s  1
Fg;r ; Fg;f ; Fg;y gravitational forces acting on a particle in r; f; y d elastic deformation of the cup, m
directions, N Dt time increment, s
g acceleration due to gravity, m/s2 Z uid viscosity, Pa s
h lubricant lm thickness, m y side leakage direction of uid in hip joint, rad
hg geometric lm thickness, m r uid density, kg/m3
k Boltzmann constant, J K  1 rp particle density, kg/m3
Ki,j,k,l displacement coefcients in Wang et al. [24] f uid entraining direction in hip joint, rad
mp mass of wear particle, kg o angular velocity of femoral head, rad/s
m1 ; m2 mass of bodies 1 and 2, kg
nf; ny number of divisions in the discretized grid in f and y
directions, respectively

very different from the one in articial hip joints, both in geometry 2. Modeling methodology
(Cartesian coordinates as compared with Spherical coordinates in
the present case), surface motion, and the properties of uid and 2.1. Hydrodynamic lubrication modeling
particles under consideration. Secondly, none of the above studies
are in an elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) framework. A schematic ball-in-socket representation of the articial hip
The authors believe that third-body wear phenomenon in joint is shown in Fig. 1. The acetabular cup is attached to a rigid
articial hip joints is directly related to the migration and trajectory metallic shell for xation with the bone, while the femoral head is
of the wear particles, and understanding their behavior in the joint the surface under rotation. A standard radius of 14 mm for the
interface is an important precursor to predicting the wear rate and head (CoCr) and 14.1 mm for the cup (UHMWPE) was considered
lifetime of the joints. As a mechanism that may lead to accelerated for this study. Material properties for both the bearing surfaces
abrasion of the cup, the interaction of wear particles with the are given in Table 1. Although the motion and loading on the hip
bearing surfaces needs close attention. Therefore, the objective of joint is highly complex and variable, it has been reported that an
this study is to accurately model the motion of the hard particulates average loading and steady velocity simulates the actual transient
in the synovial uid of an articulating hip joint in silico (i.e., time conditions with a fairly high degree of accuracy [24,25]. Further,
marching the physics in a computer simulation in the same way that this study mainly concentrated on developing a model simulating
they occur in the actual hip joint). The femoral head was assumed to the particle trajectories for steady-state loading conditions.
be cobalt chromium alloy (CoCr), while the acetabular cup was Furthermore, only the rotation of the femoral head along the
assumed as UHMWPE. The types of particles under consideration medial/lateral axis was considered having a constant angular
were UHMWPE, PMMA bone cement and metallic debris. During the velocity of 2 rad/s. Similar to the equivalent ball-on-plane model
analysis, the head was assumed to be a rigid surface, while the cup employed in studies by Jalali-Vahid et al. [20,22], a horizontal
was allowed to deform elastically under the inuence of the arrangement between the cup and head was assumed. Fig. 2 gives
hydrodynamic pressure developed by the ow eld. It was also
assumed that the cup and head were fully separated by the uid
throughout the lubrication domain. By denition, this classies as
elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL), and EHL analyses of metal-
on-UHMWPE articial hip joints have been extensively carried out
by many researchers [2023]. The synovial uid was modeled as an
Eulerian continuum rst, and the trajectory of each particle seeded
was modeled using a Lagrangian approach where the forces were
applied on it by the uid and by collision with another particle or
wall. This approach is similar to that adopted by Terrell and Higgs
[17]. The current particle migration model for the hip joint interface
was developed and benchmarked against the particle modeling
results reported by Shapley et al. [16]. Similarly, the EHL analysis
results by this model were compared to EHL hip results published by
Wang et al. [24]. Finally, an analysis of the effect of varying the load
balanced by the joint on the generated results has been presented in
this study. Fig. 1. 3-D representation of an articial hip joint.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1328 S.M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III / Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338

Table 1 assumed to have the form

Material properties of bearing surfaces.
Bearing material
CoCr femoral head 8300
UHMWPE acetabular
cup
Fig. 2. Hip joint arrangement under study (Courtesy Liu et al. [25]).
h hg d 3
Density Elastic Poissons
where hg is the geometric lm thickness due to eccentricities in x,
(kg/m3) modulus ratio
(GPa) y, and z directions, and d is the elastic deformation of the cup. h
was set up as a function of the independent variables f and y,
210 0.3 with h= hg if p (f,y)= 0. This function allowed an exponential
930 1 0.4
decrease in the actual lm thickness simulating the elastic
deformation of the cup caused by the hydrodynamic pressure in
the uid, as reported in the published literature on EHL analysis of
articial hip joints using either the Winkler foundation model
[20], or a more complex FEM analysis [24].
A nite difference numerical scheme was developed to solve
Reynolds equation (1) and determine the pressure distribution
within the regime. The boundary conditions were zero pressure at
the inlet in both entraining and side-leakage directions, and the
Reynolds boundary condition for the sub-ambient or cavitation
regions was employed at the outlet [20,24]:
@p @p
p 0 at y ymax ; f fmax 4
@y @f
On obtaining the pressure distribution within this regime, the
forces supported by the hydrodynamic pressure within the joint
were calculated by using a summation variation of the pressure
integration using the discretized points [20]:
nf
R22 X X ny
fx y y fi 1 fi pi;j sin yj cos fi sin yj
4 i 1 j 1 j1 j

a representation of the simplied hip joint rotation considered in pi 1;j sin yj cos fi 1 sin yj pi;j 1 sin yj 1 cos fi sin yj 1
this study. pi 1;j 1 sin yj 1 cos fi 1 sin yj 1 5a
The synovial uid found in articial hip replacements is similar
to that obtained from patients with osteoarthritis. In hip
nf
simulator studies, bovine serum is commonly used as the R22 X X ny
fy y y fi 1 fi pi;j sin yj sin fi sin yj
lubricant [26,27]. Viscosity measurements have shown a shear- 4 i 1 j 1 j1 j
thinning characteristic exhibited by the synovial uid in parti- pi 1;j sin yj sin fi 1 sin yj pi;j 1 sin yj 1 sin fi sin yj 1
cular for shear rates up to 1000 s  1, however, this behavior pi 1;j 1 sin yj 1 sin fi 1 sin yj 1 5b
vanishes rapidly under high shear rates which are close to those
experienced during walking. Therefore, in this analysis, the uid
was assumed to be Newtonian. In addition, the piezoviscous nf ny
R22 X X
behavior has not been observed in osteoarthritic synovial uid for fz y y fi 1 fi pi;j cos yj sin yj
4 i 1 j 1 j1 j
pressures lower than 100 MPa. As such large pressures are highly
improbable in a hip joint bearing system, the synovial uid was pi 1;j cos yj sin yj pi;j 1 cos yj 1 sin yj 1
also assumed isoviscous in this model [21,24,25]. However, these pi 1;j 1 cos yj 1 sin yj 1 5c
assumptions may have to be reassessed under an actual transient
analysis. The synovial uid in this analysis was assumed to have a
where fx, fy, fz are the forces acting in x, y, z directions due to the
density of 1012 kg/m3 [28]. Although signicantly higher than the
uid pressure distribution, and pi,j is the pressure at a discrete
viscosity of both bovine serum and osteoarthritic synovial uid, a
point i, j on the discretized mesh at a location fi and fj.
viscosity of 0.5 Pa s [24] was chosen for consistency with
If the load acting on the joint W was not balanced by pressure
published literature.
force fy, then the eccentricities were modied as follows:
The spherical Reynolds equation under steady state conditions
 0:0001
for an incompressible, isoviscous and Newtonian uid is given as fx
enew
x eold
x 6a
[29] 0:001W
   
@ @p @p @p @h  0:001
sin y h3 sin y h3 6ZR22 o sin2 y 1 fy
@y @y @f @f @f enew
y eold
y 6b
W
The lm thickness between the two bearing surfaces based on the  0:0001
eccentricity between its centers and elastic deformation can be fz
enew
z eold
z 6c
expressed as 0:001W
This procedure was repeated in an iterative loop until
hg R2 R1 ex sin y cos fey sin y sin fez cos y 2
the convergence criteria for both Reynolds equation and pressure
The elastic modulus of the head is two orders of magnitude variation in consecutive iterations was met, along with the
greater than that of the cup, consequently, only the elastic pressure force fy balancing the load:
deformation of the cup was considered. To simulate the Pnf Pny
i1 j 1 LHSi;j RHSi;j
magnitude of lm thickness obtained due to EHL for hip joints Pnf Pny o 104 7a
balancing a steady load, the lm thickness h in this model was i1 j 1 LHS i;j
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
S.M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III / Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338 1329

Pnf Pny new old 2.3. Particle dynamics modeling

i1 j 1 pi;j pi;j
Pnf Pny o 0:05% 7b
new
i1 j 1 pi;j
Particles representing wear debris were dispersed randomly
  within the synovial uid. The particles considered in this model
fy W 
  3
 W  o 10 7c could be debris from UHMWPE, CoCr metal or PMMA bone
cement. The average size of UHMWPE particles were reported by
where LHSi,j is the discretized form of the left hand side of Shanbhag et al. [3] to be 0.53 mm, with those within the range of
Reynolds equation (1) and RHSi,j is its discretized right hand side 0.11 mm causing the most adverse activity of macrophages [1].
at node point (i,j). A owchart depicting the algorithm is provided Metallic and PMMA fragments are generally in the range of
in Appendix A. 540 mm, Raimondi et al. [6]. Since the aim of this study was to
only model particle motion within the uid, and due to the fact
2.2. Fluid mechanics modeling that lm thickness after considering EHL was found to be o5 mm
for a major portion of the uid regime, all particles seeded were in
A dispersed phase modeling (DPM) treatment was employed in the range of 0.11 mm with a random distribution.
this work, where the uid affects the particles, but the particles do Kobayashi et al. [2] reported that the solid volume fraction of
not affect the uid. Therefore, once the uid oweld was solved, UMHWPE particles was around 0.3% in the surrounding tissues of
the wear particles were seeded randomly within the domain, and failed hip joints. Studies done by Shanbhag et al. [3] on Ti-on-
the motion of each of the particles was determined in a time- UHMWPE hip prostheses have revealed that metallic wear debris
stepping simulation using basic Newtonian physics (SF= m  a), accounted for about 510% of the total wear volume in interfacial
where the forces from the uid cause the particle mass to tissues. In a study of three-body wear in a hip joint simulator by
accelerate, as was done by Terrell and Higgs [17]. Wang and Essner [26], PMMA particle concentrations were taken
After dening the pressure variation within the synovial uid, up to 10 g/l, which translates to a very low volume fraction.
the next step was to determine the velocity of the uid in Therefore, in this study, initial seeding of the particles in the
spherical coordinates. The boundary conditions imposed on the domain continued until the resulting solid volume fraction
uid velocity were due to the motion of the femoral head in the reached 0.3%, with CoCr metallic fragments making up roughly
entraining direction with a constant angular velocity, and the cup 10%, and the PMMA particles making up a lower volume fraction
which is xed to the acetabulum: of 1% in this model. For the sake of simplicity, all particles were
assumed spherical in shape. The densities of different wear
vf r R2 ; f; y 0 8a
particles are in Table 2.
Due to the low concentration of particles in the regime, the
vf r R2 hf; y; f; y oR1 8b
dispersed phase assumption is reasonable. For a body immersed
vy r R2 ; f; y vy r R2 hf; y; f; y 0 8c in a uid, various forces were applied to it by the surrounding
oweld, which determined its path over a certain time-frame.
vr r R2 ; f; y vr r R2 hf; y; f; y 0 8d The governing equations are based on Newtons laws of motion:

The Reynolds equation (1) was used with the continuity equation dvf;p X
in spherical coordinates to nd expressions for the uid velocity mp Ff Fd;f Fs;f Fh;f Fg;f 10a
dt
in r,f and y components, similar to Meyers work [30]:
 
1 @p R2 R2 h X
vf r; f; y r 2R2 h dvy;p
2Z sin y @f r mp Fy Fd;y Fs;y Fg;f 10b
  dt
R2 h R2
oR1 1 9a
h r
dvr;p X
mp Fr Fd;r Fs;r Fcf ;r Fg;r 10c
  dt
1 @p R2 R2 h
vy r; f; y r 2R2 h 9b The forces acting on the wear particles are now discussed.
2Z @y r
Drag force: For a spherical particle immersed in a uid, the drag
   
r R2 R2 h 2R2 h 1 R2 force experienced by it is given as
vr r; f; y   Kf; y 
3 r 2 2 r
C1f; y Fd 6pZap vvp 11
Lf; y 9c
r2
where v is the surrounding uid velocity and vp is the velocity of
the particle. The drag force is, thus, a function of the spatial
where
coordinates r, f and y.
1 @2 p cot y @p 1 @2 p Saffman force: In 1965, Saffman [31] showed the existence of a
Kf; y    9d
2Z @y 2 2Z @y 2Z sin y @f2
2 lift force acting on a particle in a shear ow system, which acts
perpendicular to the direction of shear. The resulting Saffman
1 @p @h 1 @p @h oR1 R2 @h forces acting on a wear particle in the synovial uid can be
Lf; y    9e
2Z @y @y 2Z sin2 y @f @f h2 sin y @f
Table 2
   
Lf; y R2 h Density of different wear particles [28].
C1 f; y R22    Kf; y 9f
2 3 2
Source of wear Density (kg/m3)
and p and h were obtained from Eqs. (1) and (2), respectively.
Due to the steady motion of the head assumed in this uid- CoCr (metallic fragments) 8300
UHMWPE (cup wear) 930
lm lubrication analysis, the velocity eld was also steady and PMMA (bone cement debris) 1190
was not dependent on time.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1330 S.M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III / Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338
determined as
 
81:2Za2p  1 @vn 0:5
Fs   vn vn;p
 
Z=r0:5 R2 @f
where ap is the radius of the particle, and vn and vn,p are the uid
and particle velocity, respectively, in the perpendicular direction.
The Saffman force is also a function of the spatial coordinates r, f
and y.
Gravity/buoyancy force: The gravitational force in y-direction
(downwards across the gap) results in its components being
resolved in the r, f and y. directions. Since the particles are
immersed in a uid, buoyancy effects are also considered in this
force. These are given by
4pa3p
Fg;r rp rg cos fp
3
4pa3p
Fg;y rp rg cos yp sin fp
3 parameter e, in this case, determined the exchange of energy
4pa3p
Fg;f rp rg sin yp sin fp
3 (i.e. in air), e is found to be close to unity, indicating perfectly
where the subscript p refers to the particle locations.
Magnus force: Particles rotating in a suspension experience a
perpendicular force known as the Magnus force due to the
inertial effects of the surrounding uid. However, using dimen-
sional analysis, Saffman [31] determined that Magnus forces
would be less than an order of magnitude smaller than Saffman
force for freely rotating particles in a shear oweld, which is
what is assumed in this work. Hence, Magnus forces were
neglected in this study, as was done by Shen and Bogy [19] and
Terrell and Higgs [17] in their particle ow models.
Inertial effects: The synovial uid oweld in this model is an
example of low Reynolds number ow. To validate the assump-
tion of neglecting inertial effects, the non-dimensional particle
Reynolds number was determined in this analysis:
rg_ a2p
Rep
Z Joseph et al. [34] and Gondret et al. [35]. A lower value of E 5 was
where g_ R2  o=R1 R2 is the nominal shear rate, which was found
to be approximately 104 s  1 for a steady state analysis of a hip joint
carrying a load of 1456 N. For a mean particle size of 0.53 mm and
with the uid properties mentioned earlier, the particle Reynolds
number turned out to be approximately 1.48  10  6. Since this
value is much smaller than the critical Reynolds number for
neglecting inertia in shear ow (Rep,cr =0.1) [16,32], our assumption
of ignoring inertial effects is reasonable according to suspension
theory.
Brownian motion: Brownian forces can cause rapid, random
motion of the suspended particles due to its collisions with the
molecules of the uid. The BrownianPeclet number is found to
be the inuencing factor to determine the signicance of
Brownian forces in a suspension [16,17,32], which Shapley et al.
[16] described as
6pZa3p g_
Pe
kT
where k is the Boltzmann constant and T is the absolute
temperature. The values of parameters applicable to our analysis
yield a minimum PeE2.8  103. Since Peb1, Brownian forces can
also be neglected in this study.
2.4. Collision modeling
In this model, only binary collisions were considered. A particle
during the course of a simulation could collide with another particle,
or one of the surfaces. Once an instance of particle collision was
observed, the line of centers axis was determined, and velocity
12 components parallel and normal to it were evaluated. Post-collision,
the normal velocities did not change, while the parallel velocities of
the particles were found by solving the conservation of momentum
equations along with the coefcient of restitution. The nal
velocities were resolved back to spherical coordinates before
resuming the iteration. Collisions between a particle and a surface
were treated in a similar fashion.
The equations for momentum conservation and the coefcient
of restitution are:
m1 u1 m2 u2 m1 v1 m2 v2 16a
v2 v1
e 16b
13a u1 u2
where v1, v2 are the nal velocities and u1, u2 are the initial
velocities of the colliding particles along the line of collision. The
13b
between the particles in the medium of surrounding uid during
the instance of collision. For bodies undergoing regular collision
13c
elastic collisions. However, for collisions between bodies im-
mersed in a uid, the ratio ewet/edry (where ewet is the coefcient of
restitution for particles immersed in the uid, and edry is the same
for particles colliding in air) is found to be dependent on the value
of dimensionless Stokes number [17,26,3335]:
29rp u1 u2 ap
St 17
Z
As discussed by Terrell and Higgs [17], the ratio ewet/edry was
approximately zero if the Stokes number was below a threshold
value. The Stokes number in this analysis was determined by
assuming that (u1  u2) would be of the same order of magnitude
as the velocity of the head. For mean particle size of 0.53 mm and
parameters described in Table 2, the Stokes number for this study
was in the order of 10  5.
The threshold value of Stokes number was reported as E10 by
14
determined by Davis et al. [33]. Due to the highly viscous nature
of synovial uid in this model, the Stokes number was
considerably smaller than each of these critical values. Therefore,
ewet was assumed as zero, which meant perfectly inelastic
collisions (i.e., sticking) between two particles and also between
a particle and surface.
2.5. Development of numerical model
A generic numerical code was developed in the Mathematica&
programming environment and the code was divided into two
parts. The rst part determined the nal conguration of the
femoral head with respect to the acetabular cup for a constant
load supported by the joint. A set of eccentricities (ex, ey, ez) were
input as an initial guess for the system, with the starting values of
ex and ez being nearly zero [20]. To assist the numerical process of
15 attaining equilibrium, an initial value of 0.05 mm was set for ey.
The lm thickness prole was determined throughout the domain
by the assumed lm thickness function in Eq. (3) for h, and the
spherical Reynolds Eq. (1) was solved using a nite-difference
routine to calculate the pressure distribution in the oweld. If
the resulting load supported by the pressure was found to be
different from the load acting on the joint (within a tolerance
level), a new set of eccentricities were generated and the
procedure was repeated. This loop continued until the external
load was balanced by the pressure distribution. At this equili-
brium conguration, the resultant lm thickness and pressure
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
S.M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III / Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338
distribution acted as inputs to the second part of the code (See
Appendix A).
The second part simulated the motion of wear particles within
the synovial uid at the equilibrium conguration determined in
the rst part of the code. Using a time-based simulation, this part
seeded the wear particles randomly into the already dened uid
continuum, and then assigned them a zero starting velocity. The
number of wear particles in the domain was determined based on
the solid volume fraction of wear. For each iteration of this time-
stepping simulation, the displacement r; f; y and velocity
vr ; vf ; vy of particles were updated based on the forces (F)
applied as follows:
P actual lm thickness due to EHL considering the elastic deforma-
dvp F
18a
dt mp
dvp 
vtp Dt vtp t Dt 18b
dt
rpt Dt rpt vr;p
t Dt
Dt 18c
vtf;pDt
fpt Dt ftp Dt 18d
rpt Dt
vty Dt
ypt Dt ytp ;p
t Dt
Dt 18e
rp
where the superscripts denote the time at which the velocities vp
or spatial locations rp, fp and yp are calculated, and Dt is the time
step increment.
On knowing the new positions of the particles, the code
checked for collisions (i.e. overlapping of zones between particles,
or a particle and a bearing surface) within the domain of the
simulation and altered the motion of colliding particles accord-
ingly. If a particle was found outside the bounds of the domain (in
the entraining f direction), the code also seeded a replacement
wear particle at a random location in the domain to ensure
continuity of mass. To accurately capture the acceleration changes
of the wear particles in our model, time increments on the order
of 10  1110  9 s were employed.
3. Results and discussion
The results obtained by this model were compared with
established models published in the literature to validate its
accuracy. This model incorporated both EHL and wear particle
dynamics. Therefore, results from the hydrodynamic modeling
section were compared to those obtained by Wang et al. [24] from
their study of EHL of hip joints with a UHMWPE acetabular layer
articulating with a metal femoral head. Further, the particle
dynamics model was compared to non-joint based experimental
measurements of suspension particle uctuations in a Couette
shear cell by Shapley et al. [16].
3.1. EHL model comparison
The study by Wang et al. [24] used a FEM tool to determine the
displacement coefcients for the elastic deformation of the cup.
The displacement coefcients Ki;j;k;l represented the deformation
at a particular node (i,j) of the cup caused by a unit pressure
acting at another node (k, l). These coefcients were then used to
obtain the actual deformation d throughout the entire domain
using a spherical fast Fourier transform (SFFT) technique.
As discussed earlier, the model developed for this work
assumed the form of the lm thickness in Eq. (3) to model the
1331
Table 3
Parameters for comparing results from Wang et al. [24] to our model.
Parameter Value/range
Load supported 1456 N
Femoral head radius 14 mm
Acetabular cup radius 14.1 mm
Radial clearance 100 mm
Fluid viscosity 0.5 Pa s
Head angular velocity 2 rad/s
tion of the plastic (UHMWPE) cup. The central lm thickness in
both entraining (f) and side leakage (y) directions, and the
subsequent central pressure distribution obtained from the
assumed lm thickness function were compared to the corre-
sponding results in Wang et al. [24] for test conditions given in
Table 3. The results of the comparison (Fig. 3) show that the
assumed lm thickness function of Eq. (3) used in our model was
able to predict the expected data from Wang et al. [24] reasonably
well.
3.2. Particle dynamics model comparison to experiments
Shapley et al. [16] experimentally measured the velocity of
particulates suspended in a uid in a narrow-gap couette shear
cell using Laser Doppler Velocimetry. As their setup was in the
form of two concentric cylinders (Fig. 4A), a two-dimensional
version of our model was developed to compare to
their experiments using Reynolds equation in spherical
coordinates:
 
1 @ @py @hy
hy3 6ZoR1 19
r @y @y @y
where h(y) is the lubricant lm thickness, p(y) is the pressure
distribution, o is the angular velocity of the head, Z is the uid
viscosity, and R1 is the head radius.
The geometric parameters of our model, properties of the uid,
size and properties of the particles and velocity of the head (inner
cylinder) were all modied to match the test parameters
considered in Shapley et al. [16] for their baseline measurements
of steady-state velocity proles at a dilute solid fraction (Table 4).
The comparison (Fig. 4B) shows adequate agreement between
Shapley et al. experimental and simulation-derived velocity
proles. Similar to Terrell and Higgs [17], Shapley et al. provides
a rigorous set of small particle experiments to benchmark the
current particle model.
3.3. Wear particle migration modeling
In order to model the motion of wear particles in silico, the
lubricant region between the head and the cup was divided into
separate regions of interest. These regions were selected on
the basis of the pressure gradient acting on the uid, so that
the inuence of the pressure gradient on particle dynamics could
be analyzed. Also, the uid lm thickness changed depending
on the region of interest under consideration. Therefore,
three regions of interest at f = 0.785 radians (451), 1.57 radians
(901), and 2.0 radians (1151) having the same y = 1.57 radians
(i.e. along the central line of the joint) were selected. The range in
both f and y directions was p/500 either side of the region of
interest. The concentration of seeded wear particles from various
sources was based on the aforementioned 0.3% solid fraction.
The regions of interest along with a three-dimensional model of a
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1332 S.M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III / Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338

25
Ro
.Ri Moving wall
Simulation
20
Wang et.al.
Ri 
h
y
h (microns)

15
Stationary wall
Fluid with suspended particles
10

0 1.0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
 (radians)
0.8

25
0.6

y/H
20 Simulation
Wang et.al. 0.4
h (microns)

15 Simulation
Shapley. et. al.
0.2 Newtonian Fluid

10

0.0
5 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
U/Umax
0 Fig. 4. (a) Experimental setup of study by Shapley et al. [16] and (b) comparison of
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 simulation results with experimental measurements from Shapley et al. [16].
 (radians)

10
Simulation Table 4
Parameters for comparing results from Shapley et al. [16] to current model.
8 Wang et.al.
Parameter Value/Range

1183 kg/m3
p (MPa)

6 Fluid density
Fluid viscosity 0.84 Pa s
Particle density 1183 kg/m3
4 Particle radius 90106 mm
Femoral head radius 5.715 cm
Acetabular cup radius 6.31 cm
2 Angular velocity of inner cylinder 10 rpm
Solid volume fraction 0.02

0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
 (radians)
Fig. 3. Comparison of results from simulation with data in Wang et al. [24](a)
central lm thickness in entraining direction, (b) central lm thickness in side
leakage direction and (c) central pressure prole.
particular uid domain with particles are shown in Fig. 5. A
summary of the parameters relevant to the analysis is given in
Table 6.
From the EHL analysis, it was observed that the pressure
distribution and lubricant lm thickness was also a function of
the load supported by the hip joint coupling. To understand
the effect of varying loads on wear particle migration in these
hip joints, as is also the case in actual transient conditions, three
distinct loads of W=800, 1000 and 1200 N were considered
for this study. Along with the three separate regions of interest
3.0
for each loading case, a total of nine simulation runs were
designed for the purpose of this study. The number of wear
particles in each case is summarized in Table 5. A graph showing
the maximum hydrodynamic pressure and minimum lm
thickness caused by varying the load values is shown in Fig. 6.
A three-dimensional plot of the hydrodynamic pressure and lm
thickness for each of the three loads considered is given in Fig. 7.
On increasing the load (Fig. 6), the maximum hydrodynamic
pressure increases in order to support the higher load. A higher
pressure results in an increased elastic deformation of the cup
throughout the regime, as a result of which the lubricant lm
thickness is higher, when compared to an analysis of the articial
hip joint under the same load without EHL. In effect, an EHL
analysis of the articial hip replacement ensures the existence of a
full uid lubrication in the entire system for loads experienced by
a hip joint.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
S.M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III / Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338 1333

Fig. 5. Regions of interest in a hip joint considered for this study, when viewed from the side leakage direction; inset-particles suspended in uid domain.

Table 5
Number of particles in each region of interest: W = 800, 1000, 1200 N.

Load (N) / = 0.785 / = 1.57 / = 2.0

W = 800 1443 627 496

W = 1000 1311 560 437
W = 1200 1138 468 347

Fig. 6. Maximum hydrodynamic pressure and minimum lm thickness variations in the regime for supported loads: (a) W= 800 N, (b) W = 1000 N and (c) W = 1200 N.

When the simulation started, it was observed that the particles
accelerated from rest to the velocity of the surrounding uid in a
very short time. This was consistent with our expectations based
on the order of magnitudes of the various forces acting on a third-
body particle, since the drag force in the f direction was found to
be most signicant. It was also observed that any particle that
collided with either of the bearing surfaces had a tendency to
remain at that surface for the remaining time of the simulation.
This could be attributed to the very high mass of the cup or head
when compared to a wear particle, and our assumption of
perfectly inelastic collisions within the uid.
The proles for the normalized velocity vf =vf_max against the
normalized height (R2  r)/h of the particles for the three cases
corresponding to W=800 N are given in Figs. 8(a)(c). The
aggregation of wear particles at both surfaces is represented by
the concentration of wear particle velocities near normalized
velocities of zero (i.e. the cup) and one (i.e. the head) on the plots.
From these plots, it can be observed that the majority of particles
had an entraining velocity close to that of the uid surrounding it.
Some particles, amounting to roughly 5% in each case, had a velocity
slightly higher or lower than the uid velocity at its location. This
trend was independent of the type of wear particle in the uid. Also,
the studies showed that normalized velocity proles for the same
region of interest did not change much qualitatively with the
different loadings considered. This is due to the fact that although
there was a change in height (h) with the load for a given region of
interest, the nominal shear rates g_ did not change signicantly,
which made the normalized plots look quite similar. The velocity
proles are curved in cases labeled (a) and (c), since there was also a
Poiseulle contribution to the oweld due to the streamwise
pressure gradient. The case labeled (b), is close to the region of
maximum pressure, resulting in no signicant contribution of
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1334 S.M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III / Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338

Fig. 7. Hydrodynamic pressure and lm thickness variations in the regime for loads: (a) W = 800 N, (b) W = 1000 N, and (c) W= 1200 N.

pressure gradient and hence, no visible curvature of the prole. For
W=1000 and 1200 N, the results were similar and thus not shown in
this paper.
Fig. 9 shows the average particle velocities for the three
different regions of interest at the three load cases. In all cases, the
average particle velocity was o2% of the maximum velocity
(femoral head rotation speed) of the regime, suggesting that
only a small number of wear particles were in the vicinity of
the moving head. Another general trend of the average particle
velocity for the same load increasing downstream in the
entraining direction was observed, which was consistent with
the particle velocity proles discussed in the section above. For all
three regions of interest, the average particle velocity varied with
load. However, a more distinct variation was apparent in the case
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
S.M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III / Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338 1335

Table 6 0.016
Simulation values for parametric study.

Parameter Value/range
0.014
Fluid density 1012 kg/m3

v_avg/R1
Fluid viscosity 0.5 Pa s
Particle density 8300 kg/m3 (CoCr)  = 0.785
0.012
930 kg/m3 (UHMWPE)
1190 kg/m3 (PMMA)
 = 1.57
Particle radius 0.050.5 mm  = 2.0
Femoral head radius 14 mm 0.010
Acetabular cup radius 14.1 mm
Angular velocity of head 2 rad/s
Solid volume fraction 0.003
Load 800, 1000, 1200 N 0.008
800 900 1000 1100 1200
WN

Fig. 9. Average velocities of particles in different regions of interest as a function

of load.

Fig. 8. Normalized velocity prole vs. normalized height for W = 800 N at
(a) f = 0.785, (b) f = 0.157 and (c) f =2.0.
of the highest load W= 1200 N. For f = 0.785 radians and f = 1.57
radians, the average particle velocity was markedly greater than
in the case of W=800 and 1000 N, but an exception was found in
the case of f = 2.0. A possible reason for this anomaly could again
be the number of wear particles away from the relatively high
velocity region (i.e., near the rotating femoral head) of the
oweld.
In addition to particle motion, the number of collisions of the
particles with the head and the cup were also observed, and the
results are plotted in Figs. 10(a)(c). A study of collisions of
particles with the bearing surfaces could act as a qualitative
measure for wear during articulation of a hip joint or for embedded
particles retrieved ex situ. The normalized gure of colliding wear
particles with either surface for all regions of interest was far less
than 20% (Fig. 10). If particles in contact with any surface
were assumed to stick to them, this suggested that only a
small percentage of the wear particles present in the ow
participated in further potential wear for a full-lm lubrication
hip tribosystem. This number could, however, increase if the
simulation is allowed to continue for a larger amount of actual
time. Additionally, the harder metallic fragments were also studied
separately, as these particles have been reported to be mainly
responsible for abrasive wear of the head and cup [6]. From results
in Figs. 11(a)(c), the number of colliding metallic particles also
amounted to o20% of the total metallic particles present in the
oweld. Due to the low volume fraction of PMMA particles,
the frequency of collisions of these particles was also very low.
Hence, reliable data could not be acquired specic to them in this
study.
As stated earlier, wear in articial hip joints can be attributed
to two main mechanismsthe destructive action of macrophages
on the cup, or the abrasive action of the harder particles on
both cup and head. The aim of this study was to track the motion
of wear particles using the Lagrangian approach in a time-
stepping algorithm and predict the interaction between particles
and the bearing surfaces, as a precursory step to predicting
surface wear. However, this study was bound by certain
constraints taken for the sake of simplicity, namely short
transient times. Both head and cup were assumed to be perfectly
smooth unlike the study by Terrell and Higgs [17], meaning that
the entraining velocity was purely in the f direction, eliminating
any uid ow component across the gap. As a result, no
signicant motion of the wear particles across the uid gap was
possible. Also, two-way coupling of the uid-particle interaction
was not considered, since only the uid inuenced the solid
particles. Further inspection into these assumptions and a more
in-depth study can result in more accurate and realistic predic-
tions of the wear particle related behavior, and their interaction
with the hip and cup surfaces.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1336 S.M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III / Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338
Fig. 10. Frequency of particle collisions for: (a) W = 800 N, (b) W =1000 N and (c)
W =1200 N.
4. Conclusions
A modeling approach was developed to analyze the migration
behavior of wear particles in the synovial uid of an articial hip
joint under full-lm elastohydrodynamic lubrication. The hip joint
had a metallic (CoCr) head articulating with a plastic (UHMWPE)
cup. The types of wear particles considered in this study represent
wear either from the femoral head, UHMWPE cup or debris from
PMMA bone cement. It was observed that the velocity proles of the
various wear particles considered were similar to those of the uid
surrounding them. Further, particles colliding with either of the
bearing surfaces did not move away from their position until the end
of the simulation. Additionally, the number of particles actually
colliding with either head or cup was found to be o20% of the total
Fig. 11. Frequency of metallic wear particle collisions for: (a) W = 800 N,
(b) W = 1000 N and (c) W = 1200 N.
particles in the region of interest. This suggests that particle
collisions with surfaces occur less frequently under full uid
lubrication. Since wear particle modeling is an important step
leading to in silico wear prediction, this model can provide a basis for
determination of the wear in hip joints due to third-body particles.
While this work sets up a computational framework for predicting
wear particle migration, simulating wear particle migration in the
mixed-lubrication regime will require the use of the particle
augmented mixed lubrication (PAML) modeling approach.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank current members of the
Particle Flow & Tribology Laboratory (PFTL) at Carnegie Mellon, in
addition to PFTL alumni Dr. Elon Terrell and Dr. Venkata Jasti for
productive discussions during the course of this study.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
S.M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III / Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338 1337

Appendix A

Flowchart for EHL model

 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1338 S.M. Jhurani, C. Fred Higgs III / Tribology International 43 (2010) 13261338
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