Structural and vascular analysis of tissue engineering scaffolds, Part 2: Topology optimisation.
Rapid prototyping technologies were recently introduced in the medical field, being particularly viable to produce porous scaffolds for tissue engineering. These scaffolds should be biocompatible, biodegradable, with appropriate porosity, pore structure, and pore distribution, on top of presenting both surface and structural compatibility. Surface compatibility means a chemical, biological, and physical suitability with the host tissue. Structural compatibility corresponds to an optimal adaptation to the mechanical behaviour of the host tissue. This chapter presents a computer tool to support the design of scaffolds to be produced by rapid prototyping technologies. The software enables to evaluate scaffold mechanical properties as a function of porosity and pore topology and distribution, for a wide rage of materials, suitable for both hard and soft tissue engineering.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute for Polymers and Composites, School of Technology and Management, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal.
Henrique A
HA
Almeida
Paulo J
PJ
Bártolo
D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D016062:Porosity; D012984:Software; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*
D001672:Biocompatible Materials