Sandra Sarembe, Matthias Scherge, Claas Bierwisch

The abrasive character of toothpaste is dependent on hardness, volume filling factor and size of the abrasive particles (Relative Dentin Abrasion (RDA) value). The addition of abrasive particles in the toothpaste is based solely on empirical data. Tribological investigations of the cleansing effect of toothpastes on the surface of the enamel are very limited. The introduction of numerical models with a predictive power for abrasive suspensions could yield an important contribution for the development of dental hygiene products. This investigation concerns the reduction of the complex tribological system toothbrush – toothpaste – enamel to a microscopic level in order to investigate the interactions between the basic components of a toothbrush employing $\mu$-tribological experiments and smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) simulations. This presentation was given at the Friction, Wear and Wear Protection Conference in Karlsruhe (2014).