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Probing the influence of post-processing on microstructure and in situ compression failure with in silico modeling of 3D-printed scaffolds

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Abstract

The post-processing treatment plays an important role in tailoring the mechanical and biological properties of the three-dimensional powder-printed porous scaffolds. Depending on scaffold material composition, a combination of post-processing treatments can be used to tailor these properties. This work probes into the impact of post-processing on the microstructure and deformation behavior of 3D-printed scaffolds. In this study, we have chosen CaSO4·xH2O (POP), a system for 3D powder printing and two different post-processing methodologies, namely chemical conversion and polymer infiltration. POP-based scaffolds were fabricated using water-based binder with up to 55% interconnected microporosity and moderate compressive strength of 1.5 MPa. Microcomputed tomography (µCT) is extensively utilized to determine the accuracy and efficacy of the adopted printing and post-processing approach. It was shown that the reproducibility of the fine features depends not only on the size but also on the presence of neighboring features. Crucially, µCT-based microstructure modeling and finite elemental simulation were attempted to computationally capture the compression behavior, in silico. Finally, in situ compression coupled with µCT imaging provided us an insight into fracture behavior of 3D powder-printed scaffolds.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and Department of Biotechnology, Government of India under different research grants to carry out research activities. S. Mandal would like to thank Dr. Alok Kumar, for his encouragement at the starting of this study, Barthi R, for her assistance in acquiring XRD and SEM data, and Dr. Subhomoy Chatterjee, for earnestly extending help in the finite elemental analysis related procedures. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism in improving the quality of the manuscript and the study.

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  1. Laboratory for Biomaterials, Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India

    Sourav Mandal & Bikramjit Basu

  2. Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India

    Bikramjit Basu

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  1. Sourav Mandal
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Mandal, S., Basu, B. Probing the influence of post-processing on microstructure and in situ compression failure with in silico modeling of 3D-printed scaffolds. Journal of Materials Research 33, 2062–2076 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2018.188

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