Evaluation of Rapid Manufacturing Solutions for Improved Knee Implants Using Finite Element Analysis

Knee joint is an important part of human body; failure of knee joint may occur mainly because of surface to surface contact of femoral and tibial surfaces owing to the dry out of bursae fluid. The damaged surfaces must be replaced by artificial implants made of metals, ceramics, or composite materials. This process is known as total knee replacement.\ud Three-dimensional physical model of the knee implant is modeled in NX Unigraphics 7.5 software. This model is imported to ANSYS-WORKBENCH 13, solver used is MECHANICAL-APDL, which is based on Finite Element Method (FEM).\ud The metallic implant is made of porous inside and dense outside. This reduces the overall weight of the implant. The failure of bearing component in knee implant is due to high stresses at the contact regions of femoral component and polyethylene insert causes wear and decreases the life of the implant. New improved knee joint implant is made, which reduces the stresses at the contact regions and increases the life of knee implant. The stiffness of artificial implants is around 110 GPa to 210 GPa, while that of the human bone is around 17 GPa. A metallic implant made of titanium-β alloy having stiffness of around 40 GPa to 60 GPa is used. This reduces the effect of stress shielding between the bone and implant