Effect of Temperature of Test Environment on Reciprocating Friction and Wear Behaviors of UHMWPE under the Condition of Boundary Lubrication with Calf Serum

Effect of temperature of test environment on reciprocating friction and wear behaviors of UHMWPE/Ti6Al4V rubbing pairs was investigated at 80 %RH(relative humidity) with a homemade reciprocating friction and wear tester under the condition of boundary lubrication with 25vol.% calf serum deionized water solution as artificial synovia.The contact between polymer ring's outside circumference and titanium alloy disk's plane took the form of line/plane,their length of initial linear contact was thus 6 mm,normal load was 50 N and reciprocating frequency was 1 Hz.In order to investigate wear mechanism,photographies of worn surfaces were observed by SEM at 37 ℃.The results showed that the friction coefficient average μa of UHMWPE/Ti6Al4V rubbing pairs decreased obviously when temperature of test environment θ increased from 10 ℃ to 30 ℃,but it began to increase slowly when θ increased from 30 ℃ to 37 ℃;variation of volume loss of wear of UHMWPE Wv with θ was similar with that of μa;wear mechanism of UHMWPE against titanium alloy was primary abrasive wear.