A novel model for porous scaffold to match the mechanical anisotropy and the hierarchical structure of bone

A novel porous anisotropic scaffold with hierarchy is proposed for bone regeneration. The scaffold can mimic the morphology and the mechanical anisotropy of the natural bone. In this letter, the pores within the scaffold are prolate spheroidal and the structural anisotropy is controlled by the parameter beta, which denotes the ratio of the semi-major axis to the semi-minor axis of the prolate spheroidal pores. The elastic-plastic behavior of the scaffold is studied for different porosities and beta values using the finite element method. It has been found that the mechanical anisotropy depends on the parameter beta, where a larger beta leads to higher mechanical anisotropy. The scaffold's structure is simple and can be achieved easily in manufacturing with controllable porosity and anisotropy. Thus, the scaffold is a promising candidate for bone regeneration. (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.