ABSTRACT
Ceramic materials, as discussed in the previous chapter, show excellent results in mechanical applications that require high wear resistance. If they were not fragile to impact and prone to formation of fragile cracks, the ceramic materials would already be the majority of applications that involve contact of moving parts.
Ceramic materials, as discussed in the previous chapter, show excellent results in mechanical applications that require high wear resistance. If they were not fragile to impact and prone to formation of fragile cracks, the ceramic materials would already be the majority of applications that involve contact of moving parts (Xiao et al. 2020).
An important property for its use as a biomaterial is its relative chemical inertia, which is, most of the time, associated with biocompatibility as they are normally used in hip prosthesis, to replace the femur and acetabulum (Araki et al. 2017; Florentino et al. 2019).
Its use in orthopedics is not only common, but also promising in cases of joints, since it can solve a problem of difficult solution, the replacement of living cartilaginous tissue. The moving parts can be replaced by ceramic implants with excellent performance, low wear, and relatively long life cycle (Laang et al. 2016).
Thus, the science that studies friction and develops materials and technologies that make it possible to improve the mechanical performance of these parts that are in constant contact is tribology. The first analysis that can be performed is the study of the dynamics involved in the system (Miranda and Faria 2014).
After massive use by the orthopedic medical community, the cardiology discovered the importance of tribology to develop better stents and vascular grafts, heart valves, and ventricular assist devices (VADs) (Bock et al. 2005; Neto et al. 2020). With ceramic pivot bearings, the miniaturization of blood pumps, the emergence of axial pumps and centrifugal pumps, and the important paradigm shift in assistance by non-pulsatile pumps were possible. Xie et al. (2015) presented a very interesting review of the entire history of bio-tribology in cardiovascular devices.
In this chapter, we will present design strategies and methodologies to develop pivot bearings for VADs, from the elementary concepts of contact mechanics to experimental setup and controlling of the process and materials evaluated (Yamane et al. 2008; Sundareswaran et al. 2013).
