In the implantation of porous bone scaffolds, good mechanical properties of the scaffold are a prerequisite for the long-term functionality of the implanted scaffolds, which varies according to the structure and the forming process. In this study, the influence of the forming parameters and structure of the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process on the mechanical properties of 316L stainless steel bone scaffolds was investigated using finite element simulation combined with experimental methods. The mechanism of the influence of the process parameters and structure on the mechanical properties of bone scaffolds was summarized using static compression finite element numerical simulations, compression experiments, hydrodynamic simulations, forming numerical simulations and SLM forming experiments. The results show that the magnitude of residual stress and the distribution of defects under different process parameters had a strong influence on the microstructure and properties of the scaffold, and the residual stress of the Body-Centered Cube (BCC) structure formed at an energy density of 41.7 J/mm3 was significantly reduced, with less surface spheroidization and fewer cracks on the melt pool surface. The smallest grain size of 321 nm was obtained at an energy density of 77.4 J/mm3, while in terms of mechanical properties, the optimization of the structure resulted in an 8.3% increase in yield strength and a reduction in stress concentration. The predictions of stress, deformation, and forming quality during construction with different process parameters, achieved using finite element analysis, are basically in agreement with the experimental results, indicating that the best process parameters for forming BCC structural supports were determined by using finite element simulation combined with experiments; moreover, the distribution and evolution of residual stresses and defects under different process parameters for constructing BCC structures were obtained.
In recent years, bone defect and bone tissue damage have become common clinical diseases. The development of bionic bone has had an important impact on the repair and reconstruction of bone tissue. Porous scaffolds have the advantages of adjustable pore size and controllable shape, which can solve the problem of mismatch in the process of bone repair, but traditional processing methods cannot overcome the challenge of the preparation of complex porous scaffolds. Therefore, 316L porous stainless steel scaffolds with different pore sizes (200 μm, 300 μm, 400 μm and 500 μm, respectively) were prepared by selective laser melting. Stress and strain were simulated and analyzed by using a finite element simulation method. Combined with a heat treatment experiment, a hardness test, a metallographic observation and a compression test, porous scaffolds were studied. The mechanical properties and microstructures of the scaffolds were studied and analyzed, and the optimized porous scaffolds were obtained. With reasonable melting parameters, the porous scaffolds that could meet the mechanical property requirements of load-bearing bone restorations were prepared by SLM.
The effects of compound plasticizer urea/caprolactam (UC) on the diffusion behavior of water in mixtures with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) were studied using a Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation method. Five simulation models of PVA composites with different plasticizer contents were constructed to investigate the variation of the intermolecular interaction as well as the diffusion behavior of water molecules. Results showed that the predominant interaction between the functional groups of UC and PVA consisted of hydrogen bonds. As the plasticizer content increased, diffusion coefficients of water in PVA systems increased due to the comparably weak diffusion resistance. It was also found that the rotation of the PVA chains and the small molecules became faster with increasing UC content, and the relaxation time became shorter.
Magnesium alloy is one of the structure metals of great potential. The hcp structure makes its plasticity is poor at room temperature, which severely limits the development of magnesium alloy. Magnesium alloy plastic problem can be resolved through grain refinement method, and equal channel angular processing is one of the more effective methods of grain refinement. In this paper, two-dimensional dynamic simulation of equal channel angular processing for magnesium alloy were done with the finite element software. The deformation of magnesium alloy was analyzed when die angle and die corner angle were different. The results show that: in the main deformation zone, when die angles were different, the sample deformation in the horizontal direction is very uniform. But in the sample longitudinally direction, the greater the die angle, the more uniform the sample deformation. Die corner angle has no significant effect on the uniformity of the longitudinally deformation of the sample, but its affects the size of the dead zone and sample warpage.