Tensile and Shear Stress Evaluation of Schwartz Surfaces for Scaffold Design

Abstract

Tissue engineering represents a new, emerging interdisciplinary field involving combined efforts of several scientific domains towards the development of biological substitutes to restore, maintain, or improve tissue functions. Scaffolds provide a temporary mechanical and vascular support for tissue regeneration while shaping the in-growth tissues. These scaffolds must be biocompatible, biodegradable, with appropriate porosity, pore structure and pore distribution and optimal structural and vascular performance, having both surface and structural compatibility. Surface compatibility means a chemical, biological and physical suitability to the host tissue. Structural compatibility corresponds to an optimal adaptation to the mechanical behaviour of the host tissue. The design of optimised scaffolds based on the fundamental knowledge of its macro microstructure is a relevant topic of research.This research proposes the use of geometric structures based on Triple Periodic Minimal Surfaces, namely, Schwartz geometries for tensile and shear stress applications. Geometries based on these surfaces enables the design of vary high surface-to-volume ratio structures with high porosity and mechanical/vascular properties. Numerical simulations on the Schwartz surfaces were performed considering two geometric variations: surface thickness and surface radius construction. The results demonstrate how the mechanical (Elastic and Shear) cell stimuli vary with the geometric variations of the Schwartz surfaces.