Experimental and Numerical Investigation of PMMA Based Composites used for Bone Cement Application

Abstract

Polymethylmethacrylate PMMA is considered a generally famous bone cement base material. Most failures that take place during function, are due to its weakness and lack of mechanical resistance. The clear limitations of PMMA are not enough ductility, strength, and viscoelastic behavior. Current research is an attempt to numerically using finite element and experimentally investigate of flexural and compression behaviour of PMMA bone cement strengthen and improve by adding modified TiO2 nanoparticles (m-TiO2 NPs). Therefore, the neat TiO2 nanoparticles were modified by silane coupling agent and then added by different ratios (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 wt %) to the PMMA bone cement. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) technique used to investigate the modification process, as well as to specify the bonding type between the m-TiO2NPs and the PMMA bone cement matrix. (SEM) technique used to study the morphologies of the prepared samples. Properties were measured bending strength, compression strength and modulus of elasticity. Results proved the successes of TiO2NPs modification by silane coupling agent and the absence of any chemical bonding between this modified filler and other PMMA bone cement ingredients. The mechanical properties increased by m-TiO2NPs addition up to 1 wt% ratio then decreased. For the purpose of making sure of the possibility of using the proposed composite materials in the application of bone cement, numerical simulation was used using the ANSYS (16.1) program for the femur model, and the results showed good agreement with the practical results. The morphology and numerical results supported the mechanical properties trends.