Big mechanically-active culture systems (BigMACS) are promising to stimulate, control, and pattern cell and tissue behaviours with less soluble factor requirements. However, it remains challenging to predict if and how distributed mechanical forces impact single-cell behaviours to pattern tissue. In this study, we introduce a tissue-scale finite element analysis framework able to correlate sub-cellular quantitative histology with centimetre-scale biomechanics. Our framework is relevant to diverse BigMACS, including media perfusion, tensile-stress, magnetic, and pneumatic tissue culture platforms. We apply our framework to understand how the design and operation of a multi-axial soft robotic bioreactor can spatially control mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) proliferation, orientation, differentiation to smooth muscle, and extracellular vascular matrix deposition. We find MSC proliferation and matrix deposition to positively correlate with mechanical stimulation but cannot be locally patterned by soft robot mechanical stimulation within a centimetre scale tissue. In contrast, local stress distribution was able to locally pattern MSC orientation and differentiation to smooth muscle phenotypes, where MSCs aligned perpendicular to principal stress direction and expressed increased α-SMA with increasing 3D Von Mises Stresses from 0 to 15 kPa. Altogether, our new biomechanical-histological simulation framework is a promising technique to derive the future mechanical design equations to control cell behaviours and engineer patterned tissue.

Porous coated cylinders have been shown to reduce the vortex shedding tone and broadband noise of a bare cylinder placed in uniform flow within specific Reynolds number regimes. The processes by which the vortex shedding and thus tone suppression take place are still uncertain despite numerous numerical and experimental studies. It is understood that adding a porous medium to a bare cylinder will have an influence on the Reynolds number of cylinder, yet the increase of outer diameter alone and the influences of surface roughness are insufficient to explain the changes in the shedding tone magnitude and frequency that are observed by many. Investigating the internal flow field of a porous coated cylinder could lead to a deeper understanding of the flow processes that result in the tonal noise reduction. This has not been achieved to date, as commonly used materials such as metal foam and polyurethane possess randomized porous structures, which make investigating the internal flow field nearly impossible without affecting the structure itself. This paper presents a preliminary analysis of the internal and external flow fields of two structured porous coated cylinders. The cylinders were manufactured using solid transparent materials that possess direct lines of sight through the pores in the axial and spanwise directions. Such structured porous coated cylinders have been previously successful in reducing the typical vortex shedding tone. Tomographic and 2-D planar Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) were used in a water-tunnel facility to visualize the internal and external flow fields. To date only the 2-D planar PIV results have been post-processed that reveal differences in the wake for the two different cylinder types such as recirculation of flow around the pores. Vorticity flow structures are observed to vary along the cylinder span in the same pattern as the porous structure and streamlines at the windward cylinder side reveal the entry of flow into the porous medium.