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Numerical surface characterization of wear debris from artificial joints using atomic force microscopy

  • Articles / Mechanical Engineering
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Study on surface features of wear particles generated in wear process provides an insight into the progress of material failure of artificial joints. It is very important to quantify the surface features of wear particles in three dimensions. In this study, a new approach using atomic force microscopy was proposed to carry out 3D numerical surface characterization of wear debris generated from artificial joints. Atomic force microscopy combined with image processing techniques was used to acquire appropriate 3D images of wear debris. Computerized image analysis techniques were then used to quantify surface texture features of wear debris such as surface roughness parameters and surface texture index. The method developed from the present study was found to be feasible to quantity the surface characterization of nano- and micro-sized wear debris generated from artificial joints.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Reliability Engineering Institute, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430063, China

    ChengQing Yuan & XinPing Yan

  2. Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    ChengQing Yuan, ZhongMin Jin & J. L. Tipper

Authors
  1. ChengQing Yuan
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  2. ZhongMin Jin
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  3. J. L. Tipper
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  4. XinPing Yan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to ChengQing Yuan.

Additional information

Supported by UK Royal Society K C Wong Fellowship and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50705070)

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Yuan, C., Jin, Z., Tipper, J.L. et al. Numerical surface characterization of wear debris from artificial joints using atomic force microscopy. Chin. Sci. Bull. 54, 4583–4588 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0588-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0588-2

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