Friction and wearing behaviors of medical uhmwpe in wet and dry environments

In this work, friction and wearing properties of UHMWPE with steel under friction conditions in wet and dry environments are experimentally investigated by using a pin-on-disc device.In this thesis, Biomaterials and UHMWPE are primarily explained. Then, wear and friction properties of polymers, and finally the role and mechanism of UHMWPE in joint displacement treatment in which UHMWPE is mostly used as a biomaterial is explained. In the final section of this work, the experimental studies and their results are represented.The friction values of GUR 1020 for different speed and loads are transferred to the computer environment and automatically calculated through the experiments. The weights of pims are measured at the beginning and at the end of the experiments, thus the friction values and the temperatures are measured. The fluid medias were distilled water, distilled water with egg albumin, Hank?s balanced salt solution (HBSS) and hyaluronic acid which is added on HBSS (HBSS+HA). The temperature and humidity of the test environment is continuously measured through all tests. The effects of test fluids on the friction and wearing mechanism are investigated. It?s seen from test results that the friction and wearing values of HBSS+HA fluid media are better than other medias. The highest friction and wearing values are obtained in dry conditions.UHMWPE has been believed to have a good wearing property, and this property of UHMWPE has been revealed in our studies. The environment that exhibits the highest wearing behavior is the dry environment, and the lowest wearing ratio is obtained in HBSS+HA media. But the values in fluid medias are very close to each other. In experiments that are exposed to a test, sliding velocity and fluid are obtained to be the most effective components for the friction and wearing values. The friction coefficient was increased with the increase in sliding velocity. In experiments that are performed under the same sliding velocity, the friction coefficient was decreased with the increase in load.