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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomechanics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1503582
This article is part of the Research Topic Methods in Biomechanics, Volume II View all 12 articles

Design of novel graded bone scaffolds based on triply periodic minimal surfaces with multi-functional pores

Provisionally accepted
Rongwu Lai Rongwu Lai 1,2*Jian Jiang Jian Jiang 1,3Yi Huo Yi Huo 2Hao Wang Hao Wang 2Sergei Bosiakov Sergei Bosiakov 4Yongtao Lyu Yongtao Lyu 2,5*Lei Li Lei Li 3*
  • 1 Department of Spine Surgery, Central Hospital of Dalian University of Technology,, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
  • 2 School of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
  • 3 Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
  • 4 Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Belarusian State University, Minsk, City of Minsk, Belarus
  • 5 DUT-BSU Joint Institute, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Various mechanical and biological requirements on bone scaffolds were proposed due to the clinical demands of human bone implants, which remains a challenge when designing appropriate bone scaffolds. In this study, novel bone scaffolds were developed by introducing graded multi-functional pores onto Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) structures through topology optimization of unit cell. The performance of these scaffolds was evaluated using finite element (FE) analysis and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The results from FE analysis indicated that the novel scaffold exhibited a lower elastic modulus, potentially mitigating the issue of stress shielding. Additionally, the results from CFD demonstrated that the mass transport capacity of the novel scaffold was significantly improved compared to conventional TPMS scaffolds. In summary, the novel TPMS scaffolds with graded multi-functional pores presented in this paper exhibited enhanced mechanical properties and mass transport capacity, making them ideal candidates for bone repair. A new design framework was provided for the development of high-performance bone scaffolds.

    Keywords: Bone scaffold, TPMS, Multi-functional pore, Mechanical behavior, Mass transport capacity

    Received: 29 Sep 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Lai, Jiang, Huo, Wang, Bosiakov, Lyu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Rongwu Lai, Department of Spine Surgery, Central Hospital of Dalian University of Technology,, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
    Yongtao Lyu, School of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
    Lei Li, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.