Material optimization of femoral component of total hip prosthesis using fiber reinforced polymeric composites

In this report an integrated approach to the three-dimensional material optimization of femoral components of hip prostheses is described. The effectiveness of using reinforced fiber composites for the material optimization of hip implants has been demonstrated and general guidelines on some material design aspects of total hip replacement (THR), in terms of fiber volume fraction and fiber orientation angles, are provided. A modular program was developed to interface the optimization routine with the finite element code. In this study two cases of cemented and non-cemented THR were investigated. In both cases perfectly bonded interfaces were assumed. Two objective functions were defined based on interface failure criteria and bone adaptive remodeling to avoid interface disruption and to reduce the risk of bone loss. The overall results demonstrated the effectiveness of the technique, which can provide meaningful insights into the fiber-reinforced composite material design of orthopaedic implants.