MECHANICAL AND THERMAL PROPERTIES OF ROBOCASTED POLYCAPROLACTONE SCAFFOLDS

Abstract

Tissue scaffold engineering technology can eliminate the impediments in revision surgery. A decent understanding of the mechanical compression properties of biomaterials is required for producing increasingly suitable materials for their use as tissue engineering scaffolds. The biomaterial must not only possess structural integrity but also appropriate biodegradability with sufficient sustainability. This study presents a numerical simulation method and the material behavior results that quantify the mechanical compression properties of a polycaprolactone (PCL) cube-cell model using the finite element method (FEM). The main interest of this study is to observe and quantify the quasi-static compression behavior and the effective thermal conductivity of the PCL scaffolds. It is modeled as such as it undergoes degradation due to surface erosion by the body fluid onto the scaffold. The effective elastic modulus, 0.2% offset yield stress, plateau stress and effective thermal conductivity were evaluated numerically. Results show a phenomenologically decreasing trend of these general properties for PCL scaffolds computed by numerical methods. The volumetric decrease in PCL promotes weakening of the scaffold at its strut causing failure under compression. The effective thermal conductivity decreases as the volume decreases due to the lower PCL substance possessed in the unit cell, which is naturally a thermal insulator.