Design and analysis of wedge type porous structured implants fabricated from additive manufacturing (AM) technique for optimum stress shielding effect

Recent advances in additive manufacturing have shown that porous cellular architectures can help reduce stress shielding in implants. This study used finite element analysis (FEA) to design wedge-shaped implants with lower elastic modulus, incorporating triply periodic minimal surface structures-specifically Gyroid and Schwarz-P types. Designs considered selective laser melting constraints, and produced using Ti6Al4V with five porosity levels (55-75%). Compression simulations revealed that increasing porosity decreased both Young's modulus and yield strength. The 75% porous Gyroid structure had the lowest Young's modulus (12.81 GPa), closest to that of natural bone. These results suggest FEA can effectively guide the design of bone-mimicking implants.