Prediction of Mechanical Behavior of 3D Bioprinted Tissue-Engineered Scaffolds Using Finite Element Method (FEM) Analysis

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) printing can be a promising tool in regenerative medicine applications for generating tissue-specific 3D architecture. The 3D printing process, including computer-aided design (CAD), can be combined with the finite element method (FEM) to design and fabricate 3D tissue architecture with designated mechanical properties. In this study, we generated four types of 3D CAD models to print tissue-engineered scaffolds with different inner geometries (lattice, wavy, hexagonal, and shifted microstructures) and analyzed them by FEM to predict the compressive elastic modulus. For the validity of computational simulations done by FEM, we measured the mechanical properties of the 3D printed constructs. Results showed that the theoretical compressive elastic moduli of the designed constructs were 23.3, 56.5, 67.5, and 1.8 MPa, and the experimental compressive elastic moduli were 23.6 ± 0.6, 45.1 ± 1.4, 56.7 ± 1.7, and 1.6 ± 0.2 MPa for lattice, wavy, hexagonal, and shifted microstructures, respectively, while maintaining the same construct dimension and porosity. This indicated that the CAD-based FEM prediction could be used for designing tissue-specific constructs to mimic the mechanical properties of targeted tissues or organs.