Mechanical and biological properties of trabecula and strut scaffolds in bone defect reconstruction

Different porous structures have different mechanical and biological properties in bone defect repair, and different types of porous structures should be applied in different scenarios. In this paper, trabecula scaffolds and strut scaffolds under different porosity conditions were designed and fabricated by 3D printing. Their mechanical and biological properties were studied, and their fluid characteristics were analyzed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The results showed that the yield strength of the strut scaffold was higher than that of the trabecula scaffold, and the strut scaffold was subjected to uniform force, with the maximum stress being much smaller than that of the trabecula scaffold under the same force. The bone ingrowth performance of the trabecula structure scaffold was better than that of the strut scaffold. CFD analysis indicated that the trabecula scaffold had more fluid flow areas inside and provided greater mechanical stimulation to the pillars, which was conducive to bone tissue growth. The study demonstrated that different types of porous structures could be selected based on the characteristics of different implantation sites when designing porous scaffolds, thereby maximizing the advantages of 3D printed porous scaffolds.