Effects of External and Internal Porous Structure Design on Mechanical Properties of Porous Scaffold: A Finite Element Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, bionic designs and 3D modeling of external and internal porous scaffold with different pore sizes and porosities were precisely fabricated using CAD software. The mechanical performance and stress distribution pattern of two porous scaffolds were studied using finite element analysis. The results indicated that the static mechanical performance of external porous scaffold deteriorated with increasing pore size, and large peak stress and total deformation were observed. However, the calculated peak stress of internal porous scaffold was reduced by almost 58.3% to 69.4%, and the elastic modulus remains almost unchanged. The mechanical properties of porous scaffold can be optimized and greatly improved by adding a solid layer with a suitable thickness. The novel optimized design of porous scaffold is conducive to bone tissue repair and reconstruction.