Cellular biomaterials offer unique properties for diverse biomedical applications. However, their complex viscoelastic behavior requires careful consideration for design optimization. This study explores the effective viscoelastic response of two promising unit cell designs (tetrahedron-based and octet-truss) suitable for high porosity and strong mechanics. The asymptotic homogenization (AH) method was employed to determine effective longitudinal and shear moduli, as well as Poisson’s ratio, across various relative densities. Finite element simulations (ABAQUS) validated the AH results, demonstrating good agreement (<10% discrepancies). Additionally, analytical models and compression tests on 3D-printed lattice structures supported the theoretical predictions. The study revealed a strong correlation between relative density and the effective modulus of both designs. Notably, the tetrahedron-based design exhibited superior modulus, making it favorable for high loading levels, particularly when used as a high-density configuration. Both designs demonstrated minimal time-dependent elastic modulus changes and a near-constant Poisson’s ratio (0.34–0.349 for octet-truss, 0.316–0.326 for tetrahedron) across a 5–50% relative density range. While minimal, time-dependent modulus reduction needs to be considered in longer-term simulations ( (Formula presented.)   (Formula presented.) ). This study provides valuable insights into the viscoelastic behavior of these unit cells using the homogenization method, with potential applications in various biomedical fields.

Auxetic materials, materials demonstrating negative Poisson's ratio, have revolutionized the use of materials in industries, as they demonstrate superb acoustic response, fracture resistance, and energy absorption. For the first time, this study embraces the free vibration of conical shells consisting of an auxetic core with and without ring support under various boundary conditions. First, the material characteristics of the auxetic core are calculated by means of a micromechanical approach. Afterwards, the kinematic motion equations of the conical shell are derived utilizing the first-order shear deformation theory. Finally, the governing equations are solved using the powerful generalized differential quadrature element method (GDQEM). The primary goal of this paper is to study the role of implementing an auxetic core as well as ring support in determining the vibrational behavior of the structure. The results of the study showed that the honeycomb interior angle and the presence of ring support can significantly affect the natural frequency of the structure. Lower frequencies can be reached as the interior angle increases. The importance of ring position is found to be highly dependent on the longitudinal mode shapes of vibration. The impact of ring position on natural frequencies is affected by the semi-vertex angle of the cone, and a shift in frequency peaks can be observed by increasing the semi-vertex angle.

In this study, the mechanical properties (elastic modulus, yield stress, and Poisson's ratio) of rhombic dodecahedron (RD) unit cell has been studied analytically and numerically. For the analytical study, two well-known beam theories, namely Euler Bernoulli and Timoshenko, have been implemented. For validating the analytical relationships, finite element model of unit cell with repetitive boundary condition has been created. Moreover, the experimental results of recent studies have been used for validation. The results showed that the presented analytical relationships for RD lattice structure have good agreement with numerical and experimental results in all the relative densities particularly in lower relative densities. Besides, the analytical relationships based on Timoshenko theory showed closer results with numerical/experimental data. The derived analytical relationships for RD as well as the data extracted from CT scan images of a femur bone, were combined and used to create a porous femur implant model. The stress and strain distributions of the porous femur model under typical static compressive load due to human weight as well as axial rigidity of the model in the same loading conditions have been obtained and compared with the experimental results from other studies. The stress and strain distributions of the porous femur implant model based on RD unit cells, as well as its axial rigidity, showed good agreement with the results obtained for human femur.

Advances in additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have enabled fabrication of highly porous titanium implants that combine the excellent biocompatibility of bulk titanium with all the benefits that a regular volume-porous structure has to offer (e.g. lower stiffness values comparable to those of bone). Clinical application of such biomaterials requires thorough understanding of their mechanical behavior under loading. Computational models have been therefore developed by various groups for prediction of their quasi-static mechanical properties. The fatigue behavior of AM porous biomaterials is, however, not well understood. In particular, computational models predicting the fatigue response of these structures are rare. That is primarily due to the fact that geometrical features present in computational model of fully porous structures span over multiple length scales. This makes the problem formidably expensive to solve computationally. Here, we propose a multi-scale modeling approach to alleviate this problem and solve the problem of crack propagation in AM porous biomaterials. In this approach, the area around the crack tip is modelled at the micro-scale (using beam elements) while the area far from the crack tip is modeled at the macro-scale (using volumetric elements). Compact-tension notched specimens were fabricated using a selective laser melting machine for validating the results of the presented modeling approach. The multi-scale computational model was found to be capable of predicting the fatigue response observed in experiments.

Additive manufacturing techniques have made it possible to create open-cell porous structures with arbitrary micro-geometrical characteristics. Since a wide range of micro-geometrical features is available for making an implant, having a comprehensive knowledge of the mechanical response of cellular structures is very useful. In this study, finite element simulations have been carried out to investigate the effect of structure unit cell type (cube, rhombic dodecahedron, Kelvin, Weaire-Phelan, and diamond), cross-section type (circular, square, and triangular), strut length, and relative density on the Young's modulus, shear modulus, yield stress, shear yield stress, and Poisson's ratio of open-cell tessellated cellular structures. It was desired to see whether or not and to what extent each of the aforementioned parameters affect the mechanical properties of a porous structure. It was seen that the strut cross-section type does not have a considerable effect on the structure Young's modulus while its effect on the structure yield stress is significant. The strut length was not effective on the mechanical properties if the relative density was kept constant. It was also observed that the structure unit cell type and relative density have a considerable effect on the elastic properties. The highest and the lowest stiffness and strength belonged to the cube and diamond unit cell types, respectively. The rhombic dodecahedron structure with circular cross-section had a high yielding strength (second among all the cases) while its Young's modulus was relatively low. Therefore, it is the best choice for applications with low stiffness requirements, such as biomedical implants.

Although the initial mechanical properties of additively manufactured porous biomaterials are intensively studied during the last few years, almost no information is available regarding the evolution of the mechanical properties of implant-bone complex as the tissue regeneration progresses. In this paper, we studied the effects of tissue regeneration on the static and fatigue behavior of selective laser melted porous titanium structures with three different porosities (i.e. 77, 81, and 85%). The porous structures were filled with four different polymeric materials with mechanical properties in the range of those observed for de novo bone (0.7 GPa

The mechanical behavior of additively manufactured porous biomaterials has recently received increasing attention. While there is a relatively large body of data available on the static mechanical properties of such biomaterials, their fatigue behavior is not yet well-understood. That is partly because systematic study of the fatigue behavior of these porous biomaterials is time-consuming and expensive due to the large number of involved factors. In the current study, we propose a computational approach based on finite element method that could be used to predict the fatigue behavior of porous biomaterials given their type of repeating unit cell, dimensions of the unit cell, and S-N curve of the parent material. We applied the proposed approach to predict the fatigue behavior of porous titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) biomaterials manufactured using selective laser melting based on the rhombic dodecahedron unit cell and compared our computational results with experimental observations from one of our recent studies. The evolution of the displacement, elastic modulus, and number of failed struts vs. the number of loading cycle followed a two-stage pattern. In the first stage, there was a relatively slow rate of change in the above-mentioned variables, while they changed very rapidly in the second stage. That compares to the behavior observed in our experimental study. The computationally predicted S-N curve well matched the experimental observations for stress levels not exceeding 60% of the yield stress of the porous structures. For higher stress levels, the presented approach substantially underestimated the fatigue life of the porous structures. The effects of the irregularities caused by the additive manufacturing process on the fatigue behavior of the porous structures were also studied. It was found that those irregularities substantially decrease the fatigue life particularly for lower stress levels.

Thanks to recent developments in additive manufacturing techniques, it is now possible to fabricate porous biomaterials with arbitrarily complex micro-architectures. Micro-architectures of such biomaterials determine their physical and biological properties, meaning that one could potentially improve the performance of such biomaterials through rational design of micro-architecture. The relationship between the micro-architecture of porous biomaterials and their physical and biological properties has therefore received increasing attention recently. In this paper, we studied the mechanical properties of porous biomaterials made from a relatively unexplored unit cell, namely rhombicuboctahedron. We derived analytical relationships that relate the micro-architecture of such porous biomaterials, i.e. the dimensions of the rhombicuboctahedron unit cell, to their elastic modulus, Poisson's ratio, and yield stress. Finite element models were also developed to validate the analytical solutions. Analytical and numerical results were compared with experimental data from one of our recent studies. It was found that analytical solutions and numerical results show a very good agreement particularly for smaller values of apparent density. The elastic moduli predicted by analytical and numerical models were in very good agreement with experimental observations too. While in excellent agreement with each other, analytical and numerical models somewhat over-predicted the yield stress of the porous structures as compared to experimental data. As the ratio of the vertical struts to the inclined struts, α, approaches zero and infinity, the rhombicuboctahedron unit cell respectively approaches the octahedron (or truncated cube) and cube unit cells. For those limits, the analytical solutions presented here were found to approach the analytic solutions obtained for the octahedron, truncated cube, and cube unit cells, meaning that the presented solutions are generalizations of the analytical solutions obtained for several other types of porous biomaterials.

Low-density open-cell porous structures are widely researched due to their mechanical properties that are close to natural bone and their open-cell interconnected structure that allows for ingrowth of new bone tissue. Different studies have shown that apparent density dominates the mechanical properties of porous lattice structures. Surveying the literature revealed that in the previously published studies, there are inaccuracies in calculating the apparent density. In this study, the effects of considering exact apparent density rather than approximate density on the predicted elastic modulus, yield stress, and Poisson's ratio were investigated. The accuracy of the created models was evaluated by comparing their mechanical properties with corresponding experimental data. Five different types of unit cell, namely cube, rhombic dodecahedron, Weaire-Phelan, Kelvin, and diamond and three different cross-section geometries namely circle, square, and triangle were considered. The effects of unit cell type, cross-section type, and apparent density on the elastic moduli of open-cell tessellated cellular structures were also investigated. Considering exact density instead of approximate density increased the calculated elastic modulus and yield stress of structures with different morphologies by 22%-44% for an apparent density of 50%. Inversely, using exact apparent density instead of approximate apparent density decreased the Poisson's ratio values.

Honeycomb structures have found numerous applications as structural and biomedical materials due to their favourable properties such as low weight, high stiffness, and porosity. Application of additive manufacturing and 3D printing techniques allows for manufacturing of honeycombs with arbitrary shape and wall thickness, opening the way for optimizing the mechanical and physical properties for specific applications. In this study, the mechanical properties of honeycomb structures with a new geometry, called octagonal honeycomb, were investigated using analytical, numerical, and experimental approaches. An additive manufacturing technique, namely fused deposition modelling, was used to fabricate the honeycomb from polylactic acid (PLA). The honeycombs structures were then mechanically tested under compression and the mechanical properties of the structures were determined. In addition, the Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam theories were used for deriving analytical relationships for elastic modulus, yield stress, Poisson's ratio, and buckling stress of this new design of honeycomb structures. Finite element models were also created to analyse the mechanical behaviour of the honeycombs computationally. The analytical solutions obtained using Timoshenko beam theory were close to computational results in terms of elastic modulus, Poisson's ratio and yield stress, especially for relative densities smaller than 25%. The analytical solutions based on the Timoshenko analytical solution and the computational results were in good agreement with experimental observations. Finally, the elastic properties of the proposed honeycomb structure were compared to those of other honeycomb structures such as square, triangular, hexagonal, mixed, diamond, and Kagome. The octagonal honeycomb showed yield stress and elastic modulus values very close to those of regular hexagonal honeycombs and lower than the other considered honeycombs.