Mechanism Study of the Effect of Selective Laser Melting Energy Density on the Microstructure and Properties of Formed Renewable Porous Bone Scaffolds

Abstract

To investigate the effect of selective laser melting (SLM) energy densities on the performance of porous 316L stainless steel bone scaffolds, the porous bone scaffolds with a face-centered cubic (FCC) structure were prepared using SLM technology, and a comprehensive study combining finite element analysis (FEA) and experiments was conducted on the SLM-formed 316L porous bone scaffolds. The mechanism of how various energy densities affect bone scaffolds were identified, and the effects of different energy densities on the primary dendrite spacing, grain orientation, residual stress, and transient melt pool variation in the scaffolds were discussed and summarized. It was found that the change in the energy densities had a more serious effect on the primary dendrite spacing, with the primary dendrite spacing increasing from 320 to 501 nm when the energy densities were increased from 41.7 to 111.1 J/mm3. In addition, analysis of the residual stress in the formed scaffolds showed that when an energy density of 41.7 J/mm3 was chosen for construction, the internal residual stress in the scaffolds reached a minimum value of 195.78 MPa, a reduction of approximately 36.6% compared to that of 111.1 J/mm3 for the porous scaffold. For the other properties of the scaffolds, the choice of low energy densities for the construction of FCC-structured porous bone scaffolds allowed for a maximum 10% reduction in the controlled deformation and a maximum 17% increase in the compressive properties. At the same time, it was found that the analysis results of the SLM-forming process by the FEA method were consistent with the experimental results. The main innovation of this paper is the proposal of the best construction parameters for porous bone scaffolds with an FCC structure formed by SLM and verification of the rationality of the best parameters through macro and micro experimental analysis, which guides the construction of porous bone scaffolds with an FCC structure formed by additive manufacturing. In addition, this study used finite element simulation to analyze the SLM process. This provides early prediction, optimization, and improvement for SLM-forming FCC porous bone scaffolds. The most important thing is that FEA can be used to more rapidly and economically analyze SLM. In the future, FEA can be used to provide a reference for porous bone scaffolds with different structures, different construction energy densities, different materials, and additive manufacturing in other industries.