Effect of FE idealisation, load conditions and interface assumptions on the stress distribution and fatigue notch factor in the human femur with an endoprosthesis.

The load transferred through the hip joint is one of the major forces occurring in the human body. After the replacement of this joint in THR arthroplasty, the load is transferred through the implant to the femoral bone. Loosening of the fixation of the implant and the fatigue failure of prosthetic stems create problems for both patient and surgeon. Both problems can be reduced by the use of Finite Element (FE) analysis to predict stresses and fatigue lifes but the results are sensitive to assumptions regarding the loading conditions and the idealisation of the components. Consequently the stress distributions and resulting fatigue notch factors in the human femur with an endoprosthesis have been determined for different assumptions regarding the form of the idealisation, the load conditions, and the interface conditions. The FE results show that a realistic loading condition without a tension banding force always produces the highest fatigue notch factor and von Mises stresses. An equivalent 2D plane stress model obtained by varying the thickness is likely to give more realistic stresses because it predicts more realistic strains than other 2D approximations. The full bonded interface is a satisfactory approximation for the real interface conditions because it predicts stress distributions of the correct form without excessive stress concentration.