Simulations of Extrusion 3D Printing of Chitosan Hydrogels

Abstract

Extrusion-based three-dimensional (3D) printing has recently become a major field that provides significant benefits, as it is principally employed to fabricate 3D scaffolds, exploiting soft biomaterials. The 3D printing hydrogel-based ink requires crucial properties, such as printability and printing fidelity to fabricate the appropriate structure. However, it typically uses trial and error techniques to achieve a three-dimensional structure, which wastes material and time. This study employed multiphysics simulation to predicate the potential printability of chitosan hydrogel as a desirable biomaterial used in tissue engineering. The flow was presumed to be laminar and two-phased in the simulations. Furthermore, the impact of different velocities and viscosities in extrusion-based chitosan 3D printing was investigated. Moreover, the model validation of the printed chitosan hydrogel was investigated to confirm the simulation outcomes for high-quality printing. The effect of different printing settings was studied during the experimental test. The results obtained from the simulation and experiments provide information for deciding the optimum parameters for printing chitosan-based ink with high quality.