Viscoelastic behaviour effect of hyaluronic acid on reciprocating flow inside mini-channel

One of the most successful surgeries during the 21(st) century is total joint replacement (TJR) with material combination of polymer-on-metal (PoM). Despite its success, wear particle generation at the interface of the polymer and metal causes eventually implant loosening. Investigating and understanding the wear particles distribution should help in designing implants with better performances. First step towards characterising wear particle distribution is deriving the lubricant behaviour and velocity distribution inside implant gap. Different hyaluronic acid (HA) solutions were subjected to a sinusoidal movement in straight rectangular channels. The velocity profiles along the channel width were measured with Micro Particle Image Velocimetry. HA solution behaviour was found to be dependent on the concentration. Results showed significant differences between the water (Newtonian) and HA behaviour in unsteady flow. The unsteady behaviour of the lubricant depended strongly on its non-Newtonian viscoelastic behaviour which was due to the time dependent nature of HA solution. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.