Optimal Conformity Design of Tibial Insert Component Based on ISO Standard Wear Test Using Finite Element Analysis and Surrogate Model

Total knee replacement is a standard surgical treatment used to treat osteoarthritis in the knee. The implant is complicated, requiring expensive designs and testing as well as a surgical intervention. This research proposes a technique concerning the optimal conformity design of the symmetric polyethylene tibial insert component for fixed-bearing total knee arthroplasty. The Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) design of the experiment was used to create 30 cases of the varied tibial insert conformity that influenced the total knee replacement wear volume. The combination of finite element analysis and a surrogate model was performed to predict wear volume according to the standard of ISO-14243:2014 wear test and to determine the optimal conformity. In the first step, the results could predict wear volume between 5.50 to 72.92 mm3/106 cycle. The Kriging method of a surrogate model has then created the increased design based on the efficient global optimization (EGO) method with improving data 10 design points. The result revealed that the optimum design of tibial insert conformity in a coronal and sagittal plane was 0.70 and 0.59, respectively, with a minimizing wear volume of 3.07 mm3/106 cycle. The verification results revealed that the area surface scrape and wear volume are similar to those predicted by the experiment. The wear behavior on the tibial insert surface was asymmetry of both sides. From this study it can be concluded that the optimal conformity design of the tibial insert component can be by using a finite element and surrogate model combined with the design of conformity to the minimized wear volume.