Human bone cells live in a complex environment, and the biomimetic design of porous structures attached to implants is in high demand. Porous structures based on Voronoi tessellation with biomimetic potential are gradually used in bone repair scaffolds. In this study, the mechanical properties and permeability of trabecular-like porous scaffolds with different porosity levels and average apertures were analyzed. The mechanical properties of bone-implant scaffolds were evaluated using finite element analysis and a mechanical compression experiment, and the permeability was studied by computational fluid dynamics. Finally, the attachment of cells was observed by confocal fluorescence microscope. The results show that the performance of porous structures can be controlled by the initial design of the microstructure and tissue morphology. A good structural design can accurately match the performance of the natural bone. The study of mechanical properties and permeability of the porous structure can help address several problems, including stress shielding and bone ingrowth in existing biomimetic bone structures, and will also promotes cell adhesion, migration, and eventual new bone attachment.
The mechanical properties and permeability properties of artificial bone implants have high-level requirements. A method for the design of trabecular-like porous structure (TLPS) with mixed porosity is proposed based on the study of the mechanical and permeability characteristics of natural bone. With this technique, the morphology and density of internal porous structures can be adjusted, depending on the implantation requirements, to meet the mechanical and permeability requirements of natural bone. The design parameters mainly include the seed points, topology optimization coefficient, load value, irregularity, and scaling factor. Characteristic parameters primarily include porosity and pore size distribution. Statistical methods are used to analyze the relationship between design parameters and characteristic parameters for precise TLPS design and thereby provide a theoretical basis and guidance. TLPS scaffolds were prepared by selective laser melting technology. First, TLPS under different design parameters were analyzed using the finite element method and permeability simulation. The results were then verified by quasistatic compression and cell experiments. The scaling factor and topology optimization coefficient were found to largely affect the mechanical and permeability properties of the TLPS. The corresponding compressive strength reached 270–580 MPa; the elastic modulus ranged between 6.43 and 9.716 GPa, and permeability was 0.6 × 10−9–21 × 10−9; these results were better than the mechanical properties and permeability of natural bone. Thus, TLPS can effectively improve the success rate of bone implantation, which provides an effective theory and application basis for bone implantation.
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