Multiaxial fatigue behavior of conventional and highly crosslinked UHMWPE during cyclic small punch testing

Abstract Previous observations of reduced uniaxial elongation, fracture resistance, and crack propagation resistance of highly crosslinked ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) have contributed to concern that the technology may not be appropriate for systems undergoing cyclic fatigue loading. Using a “total life” approach, we examined the influence of radiation crosslinking on the fatigue response of UHMWPE under cyclic loading via the small punch test. Our goal in this study was to evaluate the suitability of the small punch test for conducting miniature‐specimen, cyclic loading, and fatigue experiments of conventional and highly crosslinked UHMWPE. We subjected four types of conventional and highly crosslinked UHMWPE to cyclic loading at 200 N/s and at body temperature in a small punch test apparatus. After failure, the fracture surfaces were characterized with the use of field emission scanning electron microscopy to evaluate the fatigue mechanisms. Cyclic small punch testing under load control was found to be an effective and repeatable method for relative assessment of the fatigue resistance of conventional and highly crosslinked UHMWPE specimens under multiaxial loading conditions. For each of the four conventional and highly crosslinked UHMWPE materials evaluated in this study, fatigue failures were consistently produced according to a power law relationship in the low cycle regimen, corresponding to failures below 10,000 cycles. The fatigue failures were all found to be consistent with a single source of initiation and propagation to failure. Our long‐term goal in this research is to develop miniature‐specimen fatigue testing techniques for characterization of retrieved UHMWPE inserts. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 66A: 298–309, 2003