Finite Element Analysis and Experimental Investigation of 3D Printed Biomimetic Structures

Biomimetic structures are widely used in the fields of medicine, automobiles, military equipment, and aerospace due to their high mechanical and thermal properties. It also has good energy absorption and damping capabilities. Fabrication of these biomimetic structures using conventional manufacturing techniques is very challenging because of their complex lattice architecture. Therefore, additive manufacturing (AM) is a reliable and advanced method for the fabrication of biomimetic structures by layer-by-layer deposition of the materials. In this work, four biomimetic structures like cactus, marsh horsetail, equisetum arvense, and spider web were designed as multilayered scaffolds using Fusion 360 software. The finite element analysis was done to evaluate the compression stress distribution and deformation of the modelled scaffolds using a Fusion 360 simulation. The results obtained in the various samples were interpreted with different lattice designs. The best biomimetic structure among the four has been identified and ordered as marsh horsetail > equisetum arvense > spider web > cactus for the manufacturing of scaffolds for biomedical applications.