Materials and Design 152 (2018) 30–39

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

The biomimetic design and 3D printing of customized mechanical

properties porous Ti6Al4V scaffold for load-bearing bone reconstruction
Boqing Zhang a,1, Xuan Pei a,1, Changchun Zhou a,⁎, Yujiang Fan a, Qing Jiang a, Alfredo Ronca b, Ugo D'Amora b,
Yu Chen c, Huiyong Li a, Yong Sun a, Xingdong Zhang a
a
National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
b
Institute for Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials, National Research Council of Italy, Naples 80125, Italy
c
Department of Applied Mechanics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• Scaffolds showed biomimetic structure

design and customized mechanical
properties.
• Scaffolds with 66.1%–79.5% porosity
were biomimetic designed by using dia-
mond lattice pore units array formation.
• Scaffolds within a wide range of com-
pressive strength from 36 to 140 MPa
were successfully fabricated.
• Animal results indicated that the dam-
aged load-bearing bones were well
reconstructed.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The Ti6Al4V alloy is one of the most commonly used in orthopedic surgery. Mechanical property of implant con-
Received 30 January 2018 tributes important biological functions for load-bearing bone tissue reconstruction. There is a significant need for
Received in revised form 26 April 2018 design and fabrication of porous scaffold with customized mechanical properties for bone tissue engineering. In
Accepted 26 April 2018
this paper, bionic design and fabrication of porous implants were studied by using finite element analysis (FEA)
Available online 27 April 2018
and 3D printing techniques. Novel porous architectures were built up with diamond lattice pore structure
Keywords:
arraying units. With finite element analysis, the structure weak points under pressure were simulated so that
Biomimetic architectures the mechanical properties of the implants were optimized. Porous implants with different porosities and me-
Simulation and modeling chanical properties were precisely fabricated by selected laser melting (SLM), one of powder bed fusion additive
Ti6Al4V scaffolds manufacturing techniques. The biocompatibility and repair effect were studied by in vivo experiments. Animal
Mechanical properties results indicated that the damaged load-bearing bones were well reconstructed. New generated bones embed-
3D printing ded and fitted into the designed porous implants. The optimized design and precisely manufactured implants
are conducive to bone tissue repair and reconstruction.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: changchunzhou@scu.edu.cn (C. Zhou).
1
These authors contributed equally.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2018.04.065
0264-1275/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 B. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 152 (2018) 30–39
1. Introduction
The ideal scaffold for bone tissue reconstruction should resemble
natural bone in both structural and mechanical properties. Autologous
bone graft represents the gold standard for healing bone defects but, un-
fortunately, it is not always available in suitable shape or quantity and
even when it is available, it will inevitably damage the donor site tissues.
As an ideal bone tissue scaffold, not only the materials chemistry but
also the three-dimensional (3D) porous structure is considered as a cru-
cial role for bone regeneration [1–3]. With the help of this structure con-
taining micropores and interconnected pores, a temporary support for
cell proliferation and tissue infiltration, as well as a microenvironment
for transportation of nutrients and waste products can function well
[4,5]. For load-bearing bone regions, the needs for suitable mechanical
strength require better biomimetic design and fabrication of bone tissue
implants for these applications [6–8]. Owing to its excellent mechanical
properties and biocompatibility, titanium alloy has drawn a lot of atten-
tion as bone implants [9–14]. But the elastic modulus of bulk titanium is
too high compared with natural bone and the unmatched elastic modu-
lus will lead to stress shielding. Since the first porous titanium structure
was manufactured and reported in the late 1960s, the interest keeps in-
creasing. The superiorities are obvious compared with bulk titanium:
density, elastic modulus and mechanical strength are adjustable to
avoid stress-shielding. In the past, various methods have been devel-
oped to manufacture porous titanium body including sintering with
powders, solid-state foaming by expansion of argon-filled pores [15],
and sintering of titanium fibers [16]. However, too many complex pa-
rameters affect on porosity, pore shape and pore size. Therefore, it is dif-
ficult to fabricate idea implants with accuracy architectures through
conventional methods [17,18]. Recently, 3D printing technology has
made it become possible to fabricate biomaterials with complex archi-
tectures [19–26].
Selected laser melting (SLM), a typical additive manufacturing tech-
nique with a super ability to fabricate 3D complicated architecture with
customized pore, has drawn a lot of attention [27–33]. With high power
laser energy, SLM printer melt selected area of powder directly to man-
ufacture objects layer by layer, therefore objects can be manufactured
accurately [34–36]. What is more important that SLM could produce
highly complicated implants with personal-customized architectures
for different patients in accordance with their CT data [37]. With Finite
Element Analysis (FEA), the weakness of structure under pressure can
be easily simulated so the structure can be predesigned and optimized
[38,39].
Some literatures have proposed that the ideal bone tissue engineer-
ing scaffold owns macro-pores of about 300–900 μm and porosity of
60–95% [40–42]. But because lack of ability to precisely manufacture po-
rous structure, the mechanism of porosities influence biological proper-
ties still needs further exploration [43,44]. Furthermore, researchers
found difficulties in design of biomimetic mechanical properties, espe-
cially elastic modulus. One key problem is that conventional
manufacturing methods cannot fabricate scaffolds with precise pore
shape, size, location and inter-connectivity. Therefore, researchers
have a strong interest in 3D printing technology that enables accurate
manufacturing of porous architectures [27,41,45–49]. Additive
manufacturing techniques such as SLM can obtain precise porous tita-
nium implants with pore size of 400–1000 μm, which exhibit excellent
osteointegration performance in vivo [50]. However, few reports have
clarified the true effect of porous structures in terms of mechanical
properties and biological functions.
In this research, an ideal biomimetic architecture that has both ex-
cellent biocompatibility and mechanical properties for load-bearing
bone reconstruction was proposed. We investigated the effect of poros-
ity design on mechanical properties and bone regeneration. The scaf-
folds were designed with constant pore size and pore shape but varied
in support struts, which allows precisely control scaffold architectures
and mechanical properties. Porous scaffolds with five strut sizes (0.2,
31
0.25, 0.3, 0.35, 0.4 μm) and constant pore size and shape were fabricated
by SLM method. Scaffold structures were analyzed by using micro-focus
computed tomography (micro-CT) and compressive mechanical test.
Moreover, in-vivo animal experiments were conducted to evaluate the
biological properties of fabricated 3D porous scaffolds. Biomimetic ar-
chitectures with appropriate porosities and mechanical properties
allow bone ingrowth and avoid stress shielding. This proposed porous
3D biomimetic titanium bone implants fabricated by SLM represents
potential bone substitute candidates.
2. Experimental
2.1. Biomimetic mechanical property implants molding
Fig. 1 shows the strategies and technique routes for manufacturing
of personal customized porous titanium scaffolds. The pore units were
inspired by the natural cancellous bone tissues. After simulating and op-
timizing by FEA, these diamond-like pores were applied as the filler
pores. The outer shape of the implants was biomimetic modeling ac-
cording the CT data information. The bone implant with adjustable me-
chanical properties was designed by computer-aided design (CAD) and
pre-simulation. A porous implant was filled by arrayed basic diamond-
like pore units. A diamond-like pore unit is a truss structure in which
one node is tetrahedrally surrounded by four other nodes coming
from the crystal structure of the diamond crystal.
Five different implants composed with the similar porous unit were
designed by constant pore size and varied support strut in diameter of
0.2 mm, 0.25 mm, 0.3 mm, 0.35 mm and 0.4 mm, noted as D0.20,
D0.25, D0.30, D0.35, D0.40 (Fig. 2), respectively. The specimens were
designed by modeling software and their details parameters were ob-
tained by modeling information as shown in Fig. 2(e). The printing
Ti6Al4V were spherical powders with particle size of 50–100 μm
(Fig. 2(a)). The scaffolds were built up with array diamond-like units
as shown in Fig. 2(b). Cylinders specimens (∅10 × 17 mm, as shown
in Fig. 2(c) were prepared for the mechanical test and final implants
were prepared as Fig. 2(d) for in vivo experiments (∅5 × 30 mm)
using the five types porous units mentioned above.
2.2. Materials and fabrication process
Ti6Al4V powder with particle size of 50–100 μm and density of
4.5 g/cm3 was used as printing materials. An SLM system (M2, Concept
laser, German) was used in this research. Specimens were
manufactured with a 70 W laser and laser scanning speed of
500 mm/s. the thickness of the powder was kept 50 μm. After
manufacturing, specimens were wire-electrode cut off from base and
heat-treated at 820 °C for 1.5 h immediately in a vacuum environment
to eliminate the internal stress voiding cracks.
2.3. Surface bio-activation of implants
The acid pickling treatment was conducted before surface bio-
activation of implants. Specimens were immersed in 0.7%wt
hydrofluoric acids for 10 min to clean up oxide and unmelted metal
powder. Magnetic stirrer was conducted to make sure homogeneity.
After acid pickling to dislodge oxide scales and contamination, a thin hy-
droxyapatite layer was coated at the surface of titanium to promote
osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity. Briefly, the treated specimens
were placed into a container, in which the air was pumped out to a neg-
ative pressure state by a vacuum pump. The electrolyte containing
2.5 mM CaCl2·6H2O, 1.5 mM NH4H2PO4, and 0.15 M NaCl was then
added to the container so that the electrolyte could penetrate the
inner pores of the samples completely. Specimens were carried out in
an electrochemical workstation (PARSTAT 2273, Princeton Applied Re-
search, USA). Pulsed current method and three electrodes were
adopted. Specimens, platinum plate and saturated calomel electrode
32 B. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 152 (2018) 30–39

Fig. 1. The strategies and technique routes for manufacturing of personal customized porous titanium scaffolds.

were used as the cathode, anode, and reference electrode, respectively.
The electrolyte temperature was controlled at about 85 °C during the
process.
2.4. Characterization of porous implants
2.4.1. Biomimetic architectures characterization
The biomimetic architectures of porous implants were characterized
by SEM and micro-CT system. Specimens were firstly observed with a
scanning electron microscopy (SEM, JSE-5900LV, Japan). The voltage
was set to 5.0 kV and the magnification was set to ×30–×500. Then,
the Microfocus X-ray computed tomography technique was used to an-
alyze the in-site situation of acquired implants in animal experiments. A
micro-CT system (SCANCO vivaCT 40, Switzerland) was used for this,
specimens for the mechanical test as well as for in vivo experiment
were scanned and images consisting of 2910 × 2910 × 2028 pixel per
specimens with a pixel of (22 μm)2 were reconstructed using
Materialise's interactive medical image control system (Materialise,
Belgium). Mechanical test specimen reconstructed models were com-
pared with CAD model and were colored by diversity. In vivo

Fig. 2. Biomimetic architectures of porous Ti6Al4V implants. (a) SEM image of the printing Ti6Al4V powders with particle size of 50–100 μm, (b) single diamond-like unit, (c) standard
specimen for the mechanical test, (d) implant for in vivo experiment, (e) detail parameters and characters for the designed specimens.
 B. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 152 (2018) 30–39
experiment specimens were marked blue and bone tissue was marked
yellow. Osteogenesis was calculated by regenerative bone volume and
porosity of implants. Compact and cancellous bone area was selected
at defects of compact and cancellous bone.
2.4.2. Porosity
Porosity was calculated automatically during specimen CAD build-
ing. After manufacturing, the porosity was measured on the basis of Ar-
chimedes method and Theoretical formula calculation. The scaffold was
dipped into in water and suspended from an analytical balance to obtain
wet weight (Wa). Theoretical formula are calculated as follows,
Buoyancy in water ð f Þ : f ¼ Wa−Ww ¼ ρw  g  V 0
Wa−Ww
V0 ¼
ρw  g
where, V′ is the volume of outer contour of the scaffold minus open
pores volume.
Then, the porosity of the scaffold can be calculated as follows,
 
V0
ε¼ 1−  100%
V controlled at about 660 μm and pores were arrayed regularly and inter-
where Wa and Ww are the sample weights in air and water, respec-
tively. V is the volume of outer contour of the scaffold which was calcu-
lated by the size of the scaffolds. ρw is the pure water density, which is
0.9975 g/cm3 at 20 °C. The printed porous scaffold porosity ‘ε’ was calcu-
lated with Eq. (3). All measurement was conducted at room
temperature.
2.4.3. Mechanical properties simulation
Single units rather than whole cylinders were used in finite element
analysis to decrease calculation. The boundary condition of these units
was set to simulate stress condition at the core of scaffold as followed:
the bottom was fixed and force was applied at the top indirectly
through a layer of the rigid cube to make sure synchronous displace-
ment and mimic real load condition. For the same reason, displacement
was limited in other directions except load-paralleled direction along
samples. Simulations were conducted with Solidworks built-in simula-
tion module with max element size of 0.05 mm. Materials of the unit
was built-in Ti6Al4V (solution-anneal) with a yield strength of
827.4 MPa, the max strength of 1050 MPa and elastic modulus of
104.8 GPa. The load was applied gradually to simulate quasi static com-
pression. When the load converged, the software automatically stopped
and the load was regarded as the max load of this unit. Indirectly, stress
and strain were calculated from displacement and load of rigid cube.
2.4.4. Mechanical properties test
The compressive test was conducted with a crosshead speed of
1 mm/min (Precision Universal Tester Autograph AG-X, Japan). Accord-
ing to ISO 13314:2011 (E), porous cylinders (diameter: 10 mm, length:
17 mm, with 1 mm compact cylinder on both ends to void stress con-
centration, three cylinders of each type) were used in this test. The stiff-
ness was calculated from the slope of the curve in the linear elastic
region.
2.5. In vivo experiments
Beagle dogs were used as the animal model in this research.
Osteonecrosis model was built one month before implantation accord-
ing to previous research [51–53]. Briefly, an electronic drill with
∅5 mm diameter was used to made 20 mm deep hole from outboard
shank into caput femoris. Then, liquid nitrogen was poured into the
hole and made around bone tissue necrosis by low temperature. This
animal osteonecrosis model was proved that it is hard to be self-
33
healed in previous research [51–53]. After one month observation, the
osteonecrosis model was found not self-healed and then the necrosis
hole was expanded and sterilized specimens with D0.4 pore structure
were implanted properly. After 4 and 6 months, dogs were sacrificed
with the overdose of intravenously administered high concentrated
muriate. All specimens and bone tissue around were maintained and
scanned by a micro-CT machine mentioned above. After one month
paraformaldehyde fixation, tissue slices were cut and observed with a
light microscope. All surgeries were conducted by experienced orthope-
dics. All experiments were approved by the Animal Care and Use Com-
mittee of Sichuan University.
ð1Þ 3. Results
3.1. Architectures characterization
ð2Þ
SEM images of specimens were conducted before and after acid
pickling of implants as shown in Fig. 3. Before acid pickling, the surface
appearances were similar between implants of different pore sizes. The
main body of specimens was sintered compactly and some titanium
powders were observed attached on strut caused remarkable irregular-
ities of the surface (Fig. 3(c)). In terms of pore structure, pore size was
ð3Þ
connected. The pore shape was similar to the diamond-like structures
and a little bit accumulation powders were found at the edge of pores.
After acid pickling, most of the residual powders were removed and
the inner surface of the implant became smoother. With removal of
the residual powders accumulation, the whole architectures of the im-
plants achieved to a precisely duplicate as the designed diamond-like
porous structures.
3.2. Porosity results
The designed parameters and characters of the specimens were
shown as Fig. 2(e). The measured porosity results were shown in
Fig. 3(d), from D0.2 to D0.4, the designed porosity of specimens de-
creased linearly from 79.5% to 66.1% with max pore size constant at
650 ± 20 μm, and specific surface area decreased from 13.47/mm to
8.29/mm. Generally, porosities differences were less 10% higher than
the designed porosity due to adhesion of residual titanium powders.
After acid treatment, porosities increased and showed a letter bit higher
than the designed porosities.
3.3. Micro-CT results
To detect the accuracy of SLM process and the discrepancy between
specimens and CAD model, Micro-CT measurement was conducted to
analyze the implants. The discrepancy between specimens and CAD
model was shown in Fig. 4. The deviation was marked with color and
which generally lower than 48.5 μm. Accumulation was observed per-
pendicular to the printing direction. The discrepancy was quantified
from percentage differences between designed porosities and measured
porosities. From D0.2 to D0.4, diversities were 7.9%, 7.2%, 5.3% and 0.7%,
respectively.
3.4. Mechanical properties results
As shown in Fig. 5(a) and (d), the ultimate compressive strengths of
D0.20, D0.25, D0.30, D0.35, D0.40 were 36.45 MPa, 56.63 MPa,
85.81 MPa, 109.20 MPa and 140.26 MPa, respectively. The FEA-
simulated ultimate compressive strengths of D0.2, D0.25, D0.3, D0.35,
and D0.4 were 35.30 MPa, 53.61 MPa, 81.94 MPa, 109.44 MPa and
144.91 MPa, respectively. The results showed a good linear increase
trend. The maximum compressive strength implant was 4.1 times the
minimum one. It indicated that there is a lot of design space to adjust
the mechanical properties. The elastic moduli of D0.20, D0.25, D0.30,
34 B. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 152 (2018) 30–39

Fig. 3. SEM images of specimens with (a)–(c) before acid pickling (e) and (f) after acid pickling. (d) Porosities of different specimens.

D0.35, D0.40 were 1.22 GPa, 2.00 GPa, 3.02 GPa, 3.79 GPa and 5.15 GPa, 5.15 GPa, respectively. The elastic moduli increased with the support
respectively. The FEA-simulated elastic moduli of D0.20, D0.25, D0.3, struts increased. It also showed a linear increase trend as the compres-
D0.35 and D0.40 were 1.21 GPa, 2.00 GPa, 3.02 GPa, 3.79 GPa and sive strength. The maximum elastic moduli of the D0.40 implant were

Fig. 4. (a) Discrepancy between specimens and CAD model. Green color represents better match with the design model, red and blue color represents plus and minus errors. The unit is
mm. (b) and (d) The accumulation at the bottom of pores; (c) Quantified errors for different porosities implants.
 B. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 152 (2018) 30–39 35

Fig. 5. Mechanical properties of different specimens. (a) Stress-strain curves with load speed of 1 mm/min, (b)–(c) actual and simulated compressive strength and elastic modulus;
(d) compressive strength as well as elastic modulus; (e), (f) FEA results of D0.20. The red color indicated more deformation of the implant, and the red arrow point shows the weakest
area in the scaffold.

4.26 times bigger than the minimum one (D0.2). As shown in Fig. 5(b),
the simulated compressive strength showed a good fit to that of the ex-
perimental test. Generally, the simulated compressive strength showed
a little smaller than the tested data. For the elastic modulus as shown in
Fig. 5(c), the simulated elastic modulus of different implants showed
the consistent increase trend with increasing of the struts. However,
the simulated elastic modulus was higher than that of the experimental
test results. Fig. 5(d) showed compressive strength as well as elastic
modulus. Fig. 5(e) showed the simulated the compressive strength
and elastic modulus results of the D0.20 implant. The results indicated
that with varying the porosity of the specimens, the mechanical proper-
ties can be modulated in a wide range, which is beneficial to biomimetic
design of bone tissues scaffolds. Fig. 5(f) showed an example of the FEA
results of D0.20. The red color in Fig. 5(f) indicated more deformation of
the implant, and the red arrow point shows the weakest area in the
scaffold.
3.5. In-vivo experimental results
Biocompatibility and reconstruction effect were studied on beagle
dogs. The load-bearing implant sites and X-ray results after six implan-
tations were shown in Fig. 6. It was observed that no infection of the sur-
gical sites, implants dislocation, or adverse reactions such as
inflammation or foreign body reaction around the implantation sites.
Beagles limp on its right legs in the first two weeks, but they can walk
freely after one month implantation. After 4 months, the implants had
little effect on their movement. After 6 months, new bone tissues grad-
ually grow into the porous implants. The damaged legs were completely
repaired, and it was hard to detect the initial injury from the beagle's
gait walking.
Bone reconstruction effect was analyzed by micro-CT and histologi-
cal slices. As shown in Fig. 7, new bone volume in cubes (5 mm × 5 mm
× 5 mm) at the cancellous bone area as well as the compact bone area

Fig. 6. Porous specimens are implanted into beagle's right hind femoral head. (a) Front X-ray result, (b) side X-ray result after six implantations. The implants are in the red circles as arrow
pointed.
36 B. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 152 (2018) 30–39

Fig. 7. (a)–(c) The reconstructed models after implantation. (d) The regenerative bone volume for cancellous and compact bones.

were calculated and considered as osteogenesis. Reconstructed data and 35% at the cancellous bone area were filled with new bone tissues.
showed that 4 months after implantation, both cancellous and compact After 6 month implantation, bone mineral density further increased,
bone tissues were observed in the porous implants. Bone tissue grew more than 70% volume of cancellous bone and 86% volume of compact
into the pores and more than 80% volume at the compact bone area bones were observed in the implants.

Fig. 8. Morphology images of the cancellous bone area. (a) The slice morphology showed that the specimen of D0.35 after implantation for 4 months, (b) for 6 months, magnification: 20×.
(c) The slice morphology showed that the specimen of D0.35 after implantation for 4 months, (d) for 6 months, magnification: 4×, respectively.
 B. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 152 (2018) 30–39
Fig. 9. Morphology images of the compact bone area. (a) The slice morphology showed that the specimen of D0.35 after implantation for 4 months, (b) for 6 months, magnification: 20×.
(c) The slice morphology showed that the specimen of D0.35 after implantation for 4 months, (d) for 6 months, magnification: 4×, respectively.
Both the cancellous area and compact area were detected through
histological studies. As shown in Figs. 8 and 9, hard tissue slice morphol-
ogy showed that after implantation for 4 months, obvious bone tissue
structures, as well as Haversian canals can be observed around implants
in both cancellous and compact area. New bone tissues at compact bone
area seemed more compact than the tissues at the cancellous area. New
generated cancellous bones seemed sparse and filled with porous adi-
pose tissues. No obvious boundaries between implants and bone tissues
were observed due to the 3D interconnected biomimetic porous archi-
tecture design. Two more months later, more complete bone tissues
were observed. Many bone marrow tissues were observed among can-
cellous bones.
4. Discussion
SLM technology makes it possible to precisely control mechanical
properties, as well as architectures make it benefit to modulate the bio-
logical effects for bone regeneration. To achieve that goal, a series of im-
plants with constant pore size and varied mechanical properties were
manufactured by additive manufacturing technique. SLM can accurately
fabricate the outer shape and inter porous microstructures of bone im-
plants. In this research, we designed and prepared porous structure
with diamond-like pores. These novel porous structures have many ad-
vantages compared with other microstructures. Firstly, because of the
truss structure system in the scaffolds, it shows more stable under
multi-directional stress and isotropy mechanical strength. Materials
only bearing compression stress instead of shear tress and force are con-
tributed averagely among tetrahedral support strut under pressure. Sec-
ondly, it is capable to design the porosity and support struts to mimic
the mechanical properties of natural bone tissues. Furthermore, inter-
connected 3D pores are benefit for bone ingrowth. Body fluid, nutrition,
and waste for cells can be transported among those interconnected
37
pores. In order to verify the printing accuracy, a comprehensive study
between design CAD models and printing specimens were compared
via micro-CT data. Results indicated that the manufacture process
have a remarkable influence on pore structure. Therefore, it is need to
carefully control the processing parameters during the scaffolds fabrica-
tion so as to obtain true duplication [54]. Based on the statistical analy-
sis, it is found that the dimensional accuracy and mechanical properties
are sensitive to printing parameters such as laser power, laser scanning
speed and powder layer thickness. Furthermore, printing of different
scaffolds with varied strut diameters, the evolution of the molten pool
morphology, surface roughness and dimensional accuracy would be dif-
ferent. Our studies indicated that the average width and depth of the
molten pool, the lower surface roughness and dimensional deviation
decrease with the increase of scanning speed and hatch spacing. How-
ever, the upper surface roughness was found to be almost constant
under different processing parameters due to it is affected by the print-
ing powders morphology [55]. It was also found that accumulation ap-
peared at bottom of pores along printing direction. This is probably
due to the spherical powder falling into the laser melted bath and aggre-
gated during the SLM molding process. For the same reason, powders
were observed attach at top of the strut and few powders were found
below as shown in Figs. 3(a), (b) and (c) and 4(b) and (d). These resid-
ual powder and accumulation may lead to error of porosity, pore struc-
ture. However, the discrepancy of specimens was less than 8% as shown
in Fig. 4. These accumulation and residual powders were partially bound
to the main body and it can be removed by subsequent acid pickling
processes. The discrepancy can be considered during design molding
to achieve desired dimensions.
During acid pickling, the souring of acid solution corroded surface of
specimens. However, looseness and roughness of unmelted metal pow-
der and accumulation make it faster to corrode and drop off than the
main body. After 10 min acid pickling, most of particles and
38 B. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 152 (2018) 30–39
accumulation were removed with porosities decreased about 10% and
of more accurate with designed porosities. Yet, the drop of particles
gave surface necessary roughness for cell adhesion.
Mechanical properties are very important for load-bearing bone tis-
sues reconstruction [56]. Implants with too high stiffness would bear
most stress under pressure but bone tissue cannot be stimulated by
stress. Literatures have proved that stress promotes bone tissue growth
and help bone reconstruction [57]. Conversely, too low stiffness would
cause too much loads on bones and lead to bone fracture. Therefore, im-
plants with suitable stiffness need to be biomimetically designed and
fabricated for load-bearing bones. Under stress and torque loading, bio-
mimetic strength was required either to avoid implants sliding, loosen-
ing and fracture after implantation. Moreover, adequate strength may
decrease the chance that implants fracture during and after surgery. In
this research, the compressive test was conducted to evaluate the
strength of specimens, and stiffness was calculated from the stress-
strain curves. Ti6Al4V is brittle materials and the specimens fractured
at 45 degrees to the loading direction, which indicated that the designed
architectures of the implants are isotropic in the mechanical properties.
Ultimate strength varied from 36.45 MPa to 140.26 MPa and elastic
modulus varied from 1.21 GPa to 5.15 GPa with the increase of strut
size. Besides, elongation indicating plasticity increased either. FEA data
showed the same trend with experimental test data with ultimate
strength accurately predicted, therefore FEA had a significance to pre-
dict mechanical properties of implants. Besides, stress cloud map
showed the weak spot of the structure in the struts. The change of
strut size would lead to the change of compressive strength and elastic
modulus. For biomimetic mechanical properties design consideration,
our study proposed specimens with higher compressive strengths and
variable stiffness within cancellous bone(compressive strength:
10–20 MPa; elastic modulus: 0.05–0.5GPa) and compact bone (com-
pressive strength: 70–150 MPa; elastic modulus: 7–30 GPa). At early
implantation stage, high strength decreased the risk of failure, and
proper stiffness could attract and stimulate osteoblasts grow into the
scaffolds and promote osteointegration. With the bone tissue ingrowth
and maturation, the newly formed composite structures will rebuild the
mechanical properties of damaged bone sites. As previously reported
[40] that porosities have an important effect on bone formation and re-
construction, porosities beyond 60% were regarded as suitable for bone
reconstruction. As shown in Fig. 5(e), the implants compressive
strength increased about 100 MPa accompanied with decreasing
about 10% porosities when adjusting struts from D0.2 to D0.4. These re-
sults indicated that the mechanical properties of the implants can be
flexibly adjusted in a wide range without changing the porous struc-
tures too much.
In vivo animal model was used to study the biological performance
of biomimetic architectures porous Ti6Al4V scaffolds. The primary
goal is to access if the implants manufactured by SLM can successfully
reconstruct the bone tissues for load-bearing sites. D0.4 pore structure
due to its high compressive strength and proper elastic modulus was se-
lected. According to slice morphology and micro-CT results, after
4 months implantation, new bone tissues were observed grew inward
implants in both cancellous bone and compact bone areas. Haversian
canal appeared and boundaries between implants and bone tissue
were observed. At compact bone area, the pores of implants were full
of new bone tissue, and bone tissues at cancellous bone area were
sparse. It is a very interesting phenomenon that our biomimetic archi-
tectures porous Ti6Al4V scaffolds can promote both the cancellous
and compact bones reconstruction. Two more months later, the bound-
ary between cancellous bone and compact bones became more obvious
which was just like the natural bone tissues structures. Bone marrow
was observed after 6 months implantation which is very important to
hematopoietic function. Compact bone, which bears most stress of
human body, has a high density, stiffness and strength. The porous
Ti6Al4V implants with comparable lower stiffness would take a concen-
trated stress, which stimulates compact bones regeneration. Therefore,
compact bone tissues were observed at the compact bone area. At the
same time, osteointegration also happened at the cancellous bone
area. However, implants possess higher stiffness compared with cancel-
lous bones afford most stress which caused less stress stimulation for
the cancellous area. Therefore, after 4 months implantation, fewer
bone tissues were observed in the implants at the cancellous bone
area. However, much more compact bones tissues were observed at
the compact bone area. This phenomenon strongly proved that me-
chanics stimulation plays an important role in bone regeneration.
5. Conclusions
This research provides an effective method to build orthopedic im-
plants with personalized shape and adjustable mechanical properties.
Biomimetic architectures porous Ti6Al4V scaffolds were custom-made
with suitable mechanical properties for load-bearing bone tissue recon-
struction. The diamond-lattice porous structure was proposed and
manufactured by using SLM methods for femoral-head repair implants.
The struts diameters, pore size and porosity of the implants can be easily
revised to achieve bionic design of bone tissue implants. These novel po-
rous structures show isotropic mechanical properties which can be
predesigned to match the mechanical properties of natural bones. Bio-
mimetic architectures design and accurate manufacture of porous
Ti6Al4V implants provide a versatility way for reconstruction of individ-
ualized load-bearing bone tissues.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Develop-
ment Program of China (2016YFC1102000), Sichuan Province Major
Scientific & Technological Achievements Transformation Demonstra-
tion Project (2016CZYD0004), China, Science & Technology Department
of Sichuan Province Key Projects (2017SZ0001), China; Science & Tech-
nology Support Program of Sichuan Province (2016GZ0196), China.
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