Experimental and numerical simulations of 3D-printed Polycaprolactone scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications

Ideal bone scaffolds for tissue engineering should be highly porous allowing cell attachment, spreading, differentiation, and presenting appropriate bio-mechanical properties. These antagonistic characteristics usually require extensive experimental work to achieve optimised balanced properties. This paper presents a simulation approach to determine the mechanical behaviour of bone scaffolds allowing to predict the compressive modulus and the deformation mechanisms. Polycaprolactone scaffolds with regular square pores and different porosities were considered. Scaffolds were also printed using an extrusion-based additive manufacturing and assessed under compressive loads. Similar designs were used for both simulation and fabrication steps. A good correlation between numerical and experimental results was obtained, highlighting the suitability of the simulation tool for the mechanical design of 3D printed bone scaffolds.