Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Polymers
Volume
16
Issue
15
Publisher
MDPI
School
Centre for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing / School of Engineering
RAS ID
70180
Funders
Edith Cowan University
Abstract
Bone scaffolds serve a crucial role in tissue engineering, particularly in facilitating bone regeneration where natural repair is insufficient. Despite advancements in the fabrication of polymeric bone scaffolds, the challenge remains to optimize their mechanical resilience. Specifically, research on the fatigue behaviour of polymeric bone scaffolds is scarce. This study investigates the influence of pore architecture on the mechanical performance of poly-lactic-acid (PLA) scaffolds under quasi-static and cyclic compression. PLA scaffolds with a 60% porosity were fabricated using extrusion-based 3D printing in various designs: Gyroid, Lidinoid, Fischer–Koch, IWP, and Voronoi. Results demonstrated that Gyroid scaffolds had the highest compressive strength (6.6 MPa), followed by Lidinoid, Fischer–Koch, IWP, and Voronoi designs. Increased strut thickness was linked to higher compressive strength. However, normalized fatigue resistance showed a different pattern. While scaffolds resisted fatigue cycles at low strain amplitudes, fatigue damage was observed at higher strains. Voronoi structures exhibited the highest normalized fatigue performance, enduring around 58,000 cycles at 85% strain amplitude, followed by Gyroid, Fischer–Koch, Lidinoid, and IWP structures. Enhanced fatigue performance in different topologies correlated with the minimum cross-sectional area of scaffolds. Given the importance of both static and fatigue strength, the Gyroid topology emerges as the superior choice overall.
DOI
10.3390/polym16152145
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Bakhtiari, H., Nouri, A., & Tolouei-Rad, M. (2024). Fatigue performance of 3D-printed poly-lactic-acid bone scaffolds with triply periodic minimal surface and voronoi pore structures. Polymers, 16(15), 2145. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16152145