Environmental Stability and Residual Stresses in Zirconia Femoral Head for Total Hip Arthroplasty: In Vitro Aging versus Retrieval Studies

Figure 6

(a) Depth profiles of monoclinic phase fraction in Heads (I) after hydrothermal aging for different periods of time and (b) thickness of the transformed zone as a function of the aging time. The slope of the transformed thickness versus aging time indicates the rate of transformation propagation. The representative best-fitting curves of the experimental data (after 10, 15, and 20 hours aging) using (4) and deconvoluted monoclinic fraction profiles are also shown in the inset of (b).

(a)

(b)