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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomaterials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2022) | Viewed by 8225

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Reza Hashemi

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Guest Editor

College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Tonsley, SA 5042, Australia
Interests: mechanical behaviour of materials; additive manufacturing; tribocorrosion; biometals; mechanical properties
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

At present, there are a large number of biomaterials developed for the manufacture of medical implants and devices. A desirable combination of properties, including mechanical, has always been an important target to achieve, in addition to biocompatibility, in order to produce medical implants that will have an acceptable performance in the body. This becomes more significant for those implants that are subjected to mechanical loads, such as orthopaedic implants under the mechanical loads of a patient’s physical activities. Given an implant failure can result in significant consequences, the mechanical behaviour of biomaterials used for medical implants and devices has continuously been a subject for research and advancement with the aim to improve the performance and longevity of implants in the body.

This Special Issue aims to present new advances and findings in the area of the mechanical behaviour of biomaterials. The scope includes (but is not limited to): mechanical properties, charactrisation and testing, microstructural evaluation, failure analysis, fatigue, fracture, wear, fretting wear, fretting corrosion (tribocorrosion), new/advanced biomaterials, in vitro and in vivo assessments, additively manufactured biomaterials, surface modifications, simulations, and modelling.

Research articles, review articles, as well as communications are invited.

Dr. Reza Hashemi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

biomaterials
mechanical behaviour
fatigue and fracture
fretting wear
fretting corrosion
microstructure
simulation and modelling

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 13818 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Validation and Evaluation of the Bending Properties of Additively Manufactured Metallic Cellular Scaffold Structures for Bone Tissue Engineering

by Mohammad O. Al-Barqawi, Benjamin Church, Mythili Thevamaran, Dan J. Thoma and Adeeb Rahman

Materials 2022, 15(10), 3447; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15103447 - 11 May 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1363

Abstract

The availability of additive manufacturing enables the fabrication of cellular bone tissue engineering scaffolds with a wide range of structural and architectural possibilities. The purpose of bone tissue engineering scaffolds is to repair critical size bone defects due to extreme traumas, tumors, or infections. This research study presented the experimental validation and evaluation of the bending properties of optimized bone scaffolds with an elastic modulus that is equivalent to the young’s modulus of the cortical bone. The specimens were manufactured using laser powder bed fusion technology. The morphological properties of the manufactured specimens were evaluated using both dry weighing and Archimedes techniques, and minor variations in the relative densities were observed in comparison with the computer-aided design files. The bending modulus of the cubic and diagonal scaffolds were experimentally investigated using a three-point bending test, and the results were found to agree with the numerical findings. A higher bending modulus was observed in the diagonal scaffold design. The diagonal scaffold was substantially tougher, with considerably higher energy absorption before fracture. The shear modulus of the diagonal scaffold was observed to be significantly higher than the cubic scaffold. Due to bending, the pores at the top side of the diagonal scaffold were heavily compressed compared to the cubic scaffold due to the extensive plastic deformation occurring in diagonal scaffolds and the rapid fracture of struts in the tension side of the cubic scaffold. The failure in struts in tension showed signs of ductility as necking was observed in fractured struts. Moreover, the fractured surface was observed to be rough and dull as opposed to being smooth and bright like in brittle fractures. Dimple fracture was observed using scanning electron microscopy as a result of microvoids emerging in places of high localized plastic deformation. Finally, a comparison of the mechanical properties of the studied BTE scaffolds with the cortical bone properties under longitudinal and transverse loading was investigated. In conclusion, we showed the capabilities of finite element analysis and additive manufacturing in designing and manufacturing promising scaffold designs that can replace bone segments in the human body. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances in Mechanical Behaviour of Biomaterials)

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17 pages, 7815 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design and Validation of Additively Manufactured Metallic Cellular Scaffold Structures for Bone Tissue Engineering

by Mohammad O. Al-Barqawi, Benjamin Church, Mythili Thevamaran, Dan J. Thoma and Adeeb Rahman

Materials 2022, 15(9), 3310; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15093310 - 05 May 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1769

Abstract

Bone-related defects that cannot heal without significant surgical intervention represent a significant challenge in the orthopedic field. The use of implants for these critical-sized bone defects is being explored to address the limitations of autograft and allograft options. Three-dimensional cellular structures, or bone scaffolds, provide mechanical support and promote bone tissue formation by acting as a template for bone growth. Stress shielding in bones is the reduction in bone density caused by the difference in stiffness between the scaffold and the surrounding bone tissue. This study aimed to reduce the stress shielding and introduce a cellular metal structure to replace defected bone by designing and producing a numerically optimized bone scaffold with an elastic modulus of 15 GPa, which matches the human’s cortical bone modulus. Cubic cell and diagonal cell designs were explored. Strut and cell dimensions were numerically optimized to achieve the desired structural modulus. The resulting scaffold designs were produced from stainless steel using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). Finite element analysis (FEA) models were validated through compression testing of the printed scaffold designs. The structural configuration of the scaffolds was characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Cellular struts were found to have minimal internal porosity and rough surfaces. Strut dimensions of the printed scaffolds were found to have variations with the optimized computer-aided design (CAD) models. The experimental results, as expected, were slightly less than FEA results due to structural relative density variations in the scaffolds. Failure of the structures was stretch-dominated for the cubic scaffold and bending-dominated for the diagonal scaffold. The torsional and bending stiffnesses were numerically evaluated and showed higher bending and torsional moduli for the diagonal scaffold. The study successfully contributed to minimizing stress shielding in bone tissue engineering. The study also produced an innovative metal cellular structure that can replace large bone segments anywhere in the human body. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances in Mechanical Behaviour of Biomaterials)

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16 pages, 4460 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Correlation of Regional Microstructure and Mechanics of the Cervical Articular Process in Adults

by Huimei Feng, Yuan Ma, Stephen Jia Wang, Shaojie Zhang and Zhijun Li

Materials 2021, 14(21), 6409; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma14216409 - 26 Oct 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1366

Abstract

Purpose: Using micro-CT and finite element analysis to establish regional variation microarchitectures and correlation with mechanical properties of cervical articular facet trabecular bone to predict cervical spine security and material properties. Methods: A total of 144 cervical articular processes (each articular was separate to four region of interest (ROI), superior-anterior (SA), superior-posterior (SP), inferior-anterior (IA), and inferior-posterior (IP) regions) specimens with a volume of 5 × 5 × 5 mm³ were scanned by micro-CT, and allowable stress and other mechanical properties parameters in each region were calculated after mechanical testing, then the effectiveness was verified of finite element models by ABAQUS software. Results: Maximum and minimum values of C2–C7 articular processes and regions are C5 and C7 level, SA and SP regions for bone volume fraction (BV/TV) and trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), whose variation tendency is similar to the Young’s modulus, allowable stress, BMD, maximum force and strain. Between Young’s modulus and all microstructure parameters, especially between BV/TV, bone mineral density (BMD) and Tb.Th, had higher linear regression coefficients R² = 0.5676, 0.6382, 0.3535, respectively. BMD and yield strength, BV/TV, and allowable stress also had better regression coefficients, R² = 0.5227, 0.5259, 0.5426, respectively. Conclusions: The contribution of the microstructure and mechanical properties of the C2–C7 cervical spine to the movement of the cervical spine is different and has a good correlation and the effectiveness of the finite element model is also verified that we can correctly calculate the microstructure and mechanical properties of the cervical articular process to evaluate the stability and injury risk of cervical vertebrae by the established model. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances in Mechanical Behaviour of Biomaterials)

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11 pages, 9938 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mechanical Comparison of a Novel Hybrid and Commercial Dorsal Double Plating for Distal Radius Fracture: In Vitro Fatigue Four-Point Bending and Biomechanical Testing

by Hsuan-Chih Liu, Yu-Hui Zeng and Chun-Li Lin

Materials 2021, 14(20), 6189; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma14206189 - 18 Oct 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2097

Abstract

This study compares the absolute and relative stabilities of a novel hybrid dorsal double plating (HDDP) to the often-used dorsal double plating (DDP) under distal radius fracture. The “Y” shape profile with 1.6 mm HDDP thickness was obtained by combining weighted topology optimization and finite element (FE) analysis and fabricated using Ti6Al4V alloy to perform the experimental tests. Static and fatigue four-point bending testing for HDDP and straight L-plate DDP was carried out to obtain the corresponding proof load, strength, and stiffness and the endurance limit (passed at 1 × 10⁶ load cycles) based on the ASTM F382 testing protocol. Biomechanical fatigue tests were performed for HDDP and commercial DDP systems fixed on the composite Sawbone under physiological loads with axial loading, bending, and torsion to understand the relative stability in a standardized AO OTA 2R3A3.1 fracture model. The static four-point bending results showed that the corresponding average proof load values for HDDP and DDPs were 109.22 N and 47.36 N, that the bending strengths were 1911.29 N/mm and 1183.93 N/mm, and that the bending stiffnesses were 42.85 N/mm and 4.85 N/mm, respectively. The proof load, bending strength and bending stiffness of the HDDPs were all significantly higher than those of DDPs. The HDDP failure patterns were found around the fourth locking screw hole from the proximal site, while slight plate bending deformations without breaks were found for DDP. The endurance limit was 76.50 N (equal to torque 1338.75 N/mm) for HDDP and 37.89 N (equal to torque 947.20 N/mm) for DDP. The biomechanical fatigue test indicated that displacements under axial load, bending, and torsion showed no significant differences between the HDDP and DDP groups. This study concluded that the mechanical strength and endurance limit of the HDDP was superior to a commercial DDP straight plate in the four-point bending test. The stabilities on the artificial radius fractured system were equivalent for novel HDDP and commercial DDP under physiological loads in biomechanical fatigue tests. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances in Mechanical Behaviour of Biomaterials)

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Review

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16 pages, 4771 KiB

Open AccessReview

An Overview of the Stability and Fretting Corrosion of Microgrooved Necks in the Taper Junction of Hip Implants

by Mohsen Feyzi, Khosro Fallahnezhad, Mark Taylor and Reza Hashemi

Materials 2022, 15(23), 8396; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15238396 - 25 Nov 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 963

Abstract

Fretting corrosion at the head–neck interface of modular hip implants, scientifically termed trunnionosis/taperosis, may cause regional inflammation, metallosis, and adverse local tissue reactions. The severity of such a deleterious process depends on various design parameters. In this review, the influence of surface topography (in some cases, called microgrooves/ridges) on the overall performance of the microgrooved head–neck junctions is investigated. The methodologies together with the assumptions and simplifications, as well as the findings from both the experimental observations (retrieval and in vitro) and the numerical approaches used in previous studies, are presented and discussed. The performance of the microgrooved junctions is compared to those with a smooth surface finish in two main categories: stability and integrity; wear, corrosion, and material loss. Existing contradictions and disagreements among the reported results are reported and discussed in order to present a comprehensive picture of the microgrooved junctions. The current research needs and possible future research directions on the microgrooved junctions are also identified and presented. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances in Mechanical Behaviour of Biomaterials)

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