Residual stress effects on fracture energies of cement-bone and cement-implant interfaces.

The effects of residual stresses, which are caused by the temperature difference arising after polymerisation of bone cement, on the fracture energies of cement bone and cement-implant interfaces have been examined by using both experimental and numerical works. Only fracture loads of the test specimen having interfacial cracks have been measured in the experimental stage. The values of fracture loads and temperature difference after polymerisation have been applied to finite element models of the test specimens to calculate critical J-integral values of these both interfaces in the numerical stage. In addition, fracture energies of bone and cement, have been obtained by experimentally, using three-point bending test method The results have shown that residual stresses can produce changes in the fracture energies of these bimaterial systems, especially in cement implant interface and J(Ic) values of interfaces are considerably smaller than the experimentally determined J(Ic) values of cement and bone.