Modelling and simulation for fabrication of 3D printed polymeric porous tissue scaffolds

ABSTRACT

Mathematical modelling and simulation plays a crucial role in the fabrication of patient-specific three-dimensional (3D) printed porous scaffold implant material. After simulation, the patient-specific 3D scaffold is printed with the desired materials and cells with proper nutrients supply which later on developed in to complete tissue/organ. In this paper, the properties of blood/nutrient flow are studied when it is flows through in vivo chondrocyte cell growth on 3D porous tissue scaffold. Modelling and simulations are performed for the developed chitosan 3D computer-aided design (CAD) porous model. Analysis of blood flow dynamics is done on 3D CAD models of scaffolds using ANSYS 16.0 fluent when blood flowing through their pores. Solution is obtained by performing 1000 iteration. These results are used to calculate loss in the blood vessels and subsequently friction coefficient. After simulation, it has been concluded that chitosan material could be utilised for the regeneration of soft tissue scaffolds and CAD model is 3D printed successfully using layer by layer deposition methods. On 3D printed porous chitosan scaffolds the growth of chondrocytes was observed.

KEYWORDS:

• Fabrication
• 3D printing
• computational Fluid Dynamics
• bio-compatible materials

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank to Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF), North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong for using their instruments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.