Mechanical integrity of PEEK bone plate in internal fixation of femur: experimental and finite element analysis towards performance measurement

Materials, including stainless steel and titanium, have been used in prosthetic plates. The issue, called stress shielding is associated with the use of metals plates caused by the mismatch of stiffness between tissue and prosthetic plate. Polymers with a stiffness close to the human bone could be a better solution for this issue. The research aims to investigate the effectiveness of poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK) plate in stress transformation into the fractured bone and to conduct performance measurement between PEEK and steel. Uniaxial tensile test and fatigue tests are conducted to measure mechanical properties such as tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and fatigue strength. The measured mechanical properties are further used in finite element analysis to measure the stress transformation between plate and femur. The simulation results from fatigue analysis also reveals that PEEK plate is more desirable in terms of reducing stress shielding in the femur than that of stainless steel.