Computer Modeling Approach for a Porous Scaffold Structure in Tissue Engineering Based on the Shape Function Control

Abstract

The porous scaffold plays an important part in the tissue engineering. It not only provides structure support for cells, but also guides the regeneration of tissues and controls the tissue structures. From the viewpoint of geometric modeling, a universal method for porous scaffold modeling is presented: Firstly, the solid model is subdivided based on the technique of all-hexahedral mesh generation; secondly, the basic pore element in the parametric domain is mapped based on the shape function of eight-node isoparametric hexahedron and anomalous pore element model can be obtained in space domain; then the whole pore model can be constructed based on the Boolean operation union; at last the bone scaffold can be modeled by subtracting the whole pore model from the solid model. The results show that the distribution for various irregular pores can be achieved by using the method proposed. Moreover, the method is more operable and effective compared to the stochastic geometry. Because irregular pores are controlled by various irregular hexahedral elements and mapped based on shape function, various irregular pores which simulate those in the natural bone are created in the bone scaffold.