ARCH STRUCTURE OF TRABECULAE OF THE UPPER FEMORAL END AND ITS BIOMECHANICAL SIGNIFICANCE IN HIP FRACTURES

We studied ultrastructurally the cancellons bone tissues of the upper femoral ends, collected from 12 patients undergoing endoprostbesis replacement for fractures of the femoral neck and from 7 fresh cadavers. The bone tissues were composed of meshwork of trabeculae, that constituted tier upon tier of anisotropic arch structures of different diameters and sizes. The arch structures of the cancellous bone tissues in the femoral heads assumed round or roundish configurations, whereas those of the femoral head-neck junctions revealed oval outlines and those of the femoral necks showed narrow oval profiles. The fine structures of the trabecnlae in the femoral head could be divided into superficial zone, central zone, and transitional zone. Under weight-bearing, the central zone suited to sustain the load, while the superficial zone could produce elastic deformation lest fracture of the trabecaulae should ensue. The long axes of the oval arch structures of the femoral head-neck junction and the narrow oval arch structures of the femoral neck coincided with those of the femoral neck, thereby facilitating weight-bearing under physiological conditions. However, external violence in the form of either adduction or abduction force would act in a horizontal direction on the long axes of the oval and narrow oval arches so as to produce subcapital or transverse fracture of the femur in the aged.

Improving performance of macro electrolyte jet machining of TC4 titanium alloy:Experimental and numerical studies

Electrolyte jet machining(EJM)is a promising method for shaping titanium alloys due to its lack of tool wear,thermal and residual stress,and cracks and burrs.Recently,macro-EJM has attracted increasing attention for its high efficiency in machining wide grooves or planes.However,macro-EJM generates large amounts of electrolytic products,thereby increasing the difficulty of rapid product removal with a standard tool and reducing the surface quality.Therefore,for enhanced product transport,a novel tool with a back inclined end face was proposed for macroEJM of TC4 titanium alloy.For comparison,also proposed were ones with a standard flat end face,a front inclined end face,and both front and back inclined end faces.The flow field distributions of all proposed tools were simulated numerically,and experiments were also conducted to validate the simulation results.The results show that one with a 5°back inclined end face can decrease the lowvelocity flow zone in the machining area and increase the high-velocity flow zone at the back end of tool,thereby promoting rapid product removal.A relatively smooth bright-white groove surface was obtained.The same tool also resulted in the highest machining depth and material removal rate among the tested ones.In addition,rapid product removal was beneficial to the subsequent processing.Because of its rapid product removal,the machining depth and material removal rate during deep groove machining using the tool with a 5°back inclined end face were respectively 7%and14%higher than those produced using a standard one.Moreover,the lowest bottom height difference of 0.027 mm can be obtained when the step-over value was 8.2 mm,and a plane with a depth of0.285 mm and a bottom height difference of 0.03 mm was fabricated using the tool with a 5°back inclined end face.