Material and Design Optimization of Nature-Inspired Cellular Structures for Bioimplants

Using porous cellular structures in bone tissue engineering can provide mechanical and biological environments closer to the host bone. However, poor internal architectural designs may lead to catastrophic failure. With developments in bone tissue engineering, the demand for new biomaterials is increasing. The primary requirement of these materials is to possess properties close to that of a human bone. Porous biomaterials have proved to be successful in fulfilling these requirements. Also, porous structures allow biological anchorage for the surrounding bone tissue to adhere and grow through its porous network. Topologically ordered porous structures (TOPSs) have great potential in biomedical applications. This study investigates mimicking cellular architectures to address some shortcomings of conventional bone implant designs. Three geometries inspired by coral, snow crystal, and micro plant were designed in Autodesk Fusion 360. The structures’ compression strength and deformation response were analyzed using polylactic acid (PLA) material properties in ANSYS. The result reveals that the coral design exhibited exceptional performance, with a maximum stress tolerance of 2760.9 MPa and a deformation threshold of 8.3 mm. The snow crystal design exhibits a stress tolerance of 174.5 MPa with a deformation limit of 4.36 mm. The micro plant design demonstrates a stress tolerance of 144.91 MPa with a deformation limit of 3.91 mm. The current research emphasizes the potential of coral designs to transmit stresses without premature failure for better biocompatibility.