Browsing by Author "Rothammer, Benedict"

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    Designing amorphous carbon coatings using numerical and experimental methods within a multi-scale approach
    (2020) Tremmel, Stephan; Marian, Max; Rothammer, Benedict; Weikert, Tim; Wartzack, Sandro
    Amorphous carbon coatings have the potential to effectively reduce friction and wear in tribotechnical systems. The appropriate application of amorphous carbon layers requires both, a very good understanding of the tribological system and knowledge of the relationships between the fabrication of the coatings and their properties. In technical practice, however, the coatings’ development and their selection on the one hand and the design of the tribological system and its environment on the other hand are usually very strongly separated. The present work therefore aims to motivate the integrated development of tribotechnical systems with early consideration of the potential of amorphous carbon coatings. An efficient integrated development process is presented, which makes it possible to determine the boundary conditions and the load collective of the tribological system based upon an overall system and to derive the requirements for a tailored coating. In line with the nature of tribology, this approach must cover several scales. In this respect, the development process follows a V-model. The left branch of the V-model is mainly based upon a simulation chain including multibody and contact simulations. The right branch defines an experimental test chain comprising coating characterization to refine the contact simulation iteratively and tribological testing on different levels to validate the function fulfillment. Within this contribution, the outlined approach is illustrated by two use cases, namely the cam/tappet-pairing and the total knee replacement.
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    Ti3C2Tx-UHMWPE Nanocomposites-Towards an Enhanced Wear-Resistance of Biomedical Implants
    (2024) Rothammer, Benedict; Feile, Klara; Werner, Siegfried; Frank, Rainer; Bartz, Marcel; Wartzack, Sandro; Schubert, Dirk W.; Drummer, Dietmar; Detsch, Rainer; Wang, Bo; Rosenkranz, Andreas; Marian, Max
    There is an urgent need to enhance the mechanical and biotribological performance of polymeric materials utilized in biomedical devices such as load-bearing artificial joints, notably ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). While two-dimensional (2D) materials like graphene, graphene oxide (GO), reduced GO, or hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) have shown promise as reinforcement phases in polymer matrix composites (PMCs), the potential of MXenes, known for their chemical inertness, mechanical robustness, and wear-resistance, remains largely unexplored in biotribology. This study aims to address this gap by fabricating Ti3C2Tx-UHMWPE nanocomposites using compression molding. Primary objectives include enhancements in mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and biotribological performance, particularly in terms of friction and wear resistance in cobalt chromium alloy pin-on-UHMWPE disk experiments lubricated by artificial synovial fluid. Thereby, no substantial changes in the indentation hardness or the elastic modulus are observed, while the analysis of the resulting wettability and surface tension as well as indirect and direct in vitro evaluation do not point towards cytotoxicity. Most importantly, Ti3C2Tx-reinforced PMCs substantially reduce friction and wear by up to 19% and 44%, respectively, which was attributed to the formation of an easy-to-shear transfer film.