DESIGN OPTIMIZATION OF PROSTHESIS HIP JOINT USING FEM AND DESIGN OF EXPERIMENT APPROACH

Abstract

In the present era, hip joint replacement is a well-known medical issue to which the male patients are mostly prone to. There are different designs available for the hip replacement process; however, each design has its benefits as well as its limitations. This study provides the optimum design solution for the hip joint replacement by changing the dimensional parameters of the hip joint. The three geometrical parameters, ball diameter, Neck length and stem length of the hip joint, are selected for the base design. Furthermore, parameters i.e. ball material and stem material are also considered in this study to reduce the weight. The above-mentioned factors have four levels, which help to generate experimental design by using design of experiment methodology. The titanium alloy, Co–Cr-alloy, stainless steel and ultra-high molecule weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) have been selected as working material for modeling of the hip joint. The L[Formula: see text] orthogonal array is simulated in ANSYS FEM solver (Version-14.5). The FEM simulation techniques have been applied, and modeling steps are also developed. Two responses i.e. Von mises stress and body weight are selected to optimize the base design for further study. The signal-to-noise ratio analysis for stress shows that the most significant factor is ball diameter and least significant factor is neck length of the hip joint. For reducing the weight of the entire model, material of stem body is the most significant factor whereas the least significant factor is stem length.