Abstract
BACKGROUND: The structural parameters of porous scaffolds are crucial to both their mechanical and biological properties. However, the influence mechanism of random number points and porosity of bionic trabecular bone scaffolds designed by the Voronoi on the scaffold performance is currently unclear. METHODS: In this paper, bionic trabecular bone scaffolds with different random number points and porosity were designed by the Voronoi, and the scaffolds were fabricated via the selective laser melting (SLM) technology. Subsequently, the mechanical and bone ingrowth properties of scaffolds with different parameters were analyzed. Meanwhile, the internal fluid characteristics of scaffolds with the different parameters were studied by using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method. RESULTS: The results show that at low porosity, the fewer the random number of points, the better the mechanical properties. When the porosity is 50%, the yield strength of the scaffolds with random points 10 is approximately 200 MPa, while the scaffolds with random points 20 and 30 have a yield strength of only about 130 MPa. With the increase of the random number of points, the flow field inside the porous structure becomes more uniform. When the porosity is low, the bone ingrowth performance of the scaffold with a random number of 20 is the best; when the porosity is high, the bone penetration performance of the scaffold with a random number of 30 is the best. CONCLUSION: The mechanical and biological properties of bionic scaffolds are greatly influenced by the random number of points and porosity. Bionic scaffolds with fewer points have good mechanical properties, while those with more points and higher porosity have good biological properties. The parameters of the scaffold need to be selected according to the requirements of the bone repair site.