Topology optimization of microstructure and selective laser melting fabrication for metallic biomaterial scaffolds
(1. School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering,
South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China;
2. School of Electromechanical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China
3. School of Materials Science and Engineering,
South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China;
4. Guangzhou Research Institute of Nonferrous Metals, Guangzhou 510650, China)
South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China;
2. School of Electromechanical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China
3. School of Materials Science and Engineering,
South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China;
4. Guangzhou Research Institute of Nonferrous Metals, Guangzhou 510650, China)
Abstract: The precise design and fabrication of biomaterial scaffolds is necessary to provide a systematic study for bone tissue engineering. Biomaterial scaffolds should have sufficient stiffness and large porosity. These two goals generally contradict since larger porosity results in lower mechanical properties. To seek the microstructure of maximum stiffness with the constraint of volume fraction by topology optimization method, algorithms and programs were built to obtain 2D and 3D optimized microstructure and then they were transferred to CAD models of STL format. Ti scaffolds with 30% volume fraction were fabricated using a selective laser melting (SLM) technology. The architecture and pore shape in the metallic biomaterial scaffolds were relatively precise reproduced and the minimum mean pore size was 231μm. The accurate fabrication of intricate microstructure has verified that the SLM process is suitable for fabrication of metallic biomaterial scaffolds.
Key words: topology optimization; selective laser melting (SLM); microstructure; metallic biomaterial scaffolds