Mechanical Behaviour Evaluation of Porous Scaffold for Tissue-Engineering Applications Using Finite Element Analysis

Akesh Babu Kakarla,Win Kong,Satya Guha Nukala,Ing Kong

doi:10.3390/jcs6020046

Akesh Babu Kakarla, Win Kong + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs6020046

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Abstract

In recent years, finite element analysis (FEA) models of different porous scaffold shapes consisting of various materials have been developed to predict the mechanical behaviour of the scaffolds and to address the initial goals of 3D printing. Although mechanical properties of polymeric porous scaffolds are determined through FEA, studies on the polymer nanocomposite porous scaffolds are limited. In this paper, FEA with the integration of material designer and representative volume elements (RVE) was carried out on a 3D scaffold model to determine the mechanical properties of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs)-reinforced gelatin (G) and alginate (A) hydrogel. The maximum stress regions were predicted by FEA stress distribution. Furthermore, the analysed material model and the boundary conditions showed minor deviation (4%) compared to experimental results. It was noted that the stress regions are detected at the zone close to the pore areas. These results indicated that the model used in this work could be beneficial in FEA studies on 3D-printed porous structures for tissue engineering applications.

Highlights

In recent years, 3D bioprinting has significantly boosted the research and development in tissue regeneration [1]
A finite element modelling (FEM) model combined with geometry and representative volume elements (RVE) was developed to
A FEM model combined with geometry and RVE was developed to analyse the mechanical behaviour of the porous scaffold for tissue‐engineering applica‐

Summary

Introduction

3D bioprinting has significantly boosted the research and development in tissue regeneration [1]. Compared to 3D bioprinting, traditional methods are restricted in producing scaffolds with an adequate pore size that enhances in vitro behaviour. The internal geometry of the scaffold greatly influences cell adhesion, proliferation, and nutrient transportation for tissue regeneration. Customising suitable scaffold geometry for creating biological environments is addressed by 3D-printing technology rather than traditional methods [1,2,3,4]. Scaffolds generated by FEA provide the alternatives for determining the biomechanical properties of biomaterials without printing or performing extensive, time-consuming experiments. FEM helps improve the design process and methodology to provide high accuracy in the geometric configuration of 3D-printed scaffolds [6,17,18,19]

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