PROBLEM $2$

For your first assignment at your new job, your boss at a device company tasks you with improving the design for a pacemaker device. Having successfully solved a similar problem in your ME $525$ course, you confidently tell him "sure, no sweat." A schematic of the device is as follows:

The reason you are asked to work on this problem is that in earlier in vivo testing, the pacemaker fails when the electrode breaks off. Fractography of the stainless steel wire near the tip of the titanium electrode shows significant surface pitting.

$1)$ Suggest the likely failure mechanism.

$2)$ What type of corrosion process, if any, is this device predisposed to $($HINT: may be more than one process taking place at same time$)?$

$3)$ Should we be concerned with wear between the wire and the encasing? Why or why not?

$4)$ How would you go about improving the design to prevent this failure in the future?

$5)$ How would you go about sterilizing this device? List any advantages and potential drawbacks with your chosen sterilization technique.