The Contact Simulation Comparison of UHMWPE to the Crosslink Intensity Effect

Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene called UHMWPE is a unique polymer material that has excellent physical and mechanical properties. UHMWPE material is frequently used in prosthesis. One example of UHMWPE uses in prosthesis is acetabular liner which is one component for Total Hip Joint Replacement (THR) and can also be found for bearing surfaces on the knee, ankle, shoulder, and connective tissue of the joint. UHMWPE material is made by compression molding process. However, UHMWPE wear often causes the failure of artificial hip joints. Therefore, a treatment to reduce the crosslink method is performed. The purpose of this study was to determine the crosslink effect in UHMWPE material. The method used for this analysis is ABAQUS 6-13 software. On bipolar model, the 3000 N load is applied in the FEM model. The crosslink dose used in this analysis was 50kgy, 75kgy, and 100kgy. The results obtained are that UHMWPE that has received by gamma irradiation treatment can receive a smaller stress distribution. The results of the simulation for UHMWPE without irradiation produced 0.759 stress distributions; 50kgy crosslink dose has 0.666 stress distributions; 75kgy crosslink dose has 0.662 stress distributions; and 100kgy crosslink dose has 0.660 stress distributions. This result proved that UHMWPE which has received crosslink can receive a better stress distribution. For the result crosslink with 100kgy dose received the best number of stress distributionss.