Computational predictions of the tensile properties of electrospun fibre meshes: Effect of fibre diameter and fibre orientation
Date
2008Source
Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical MaterialsVolume
1Pages
326-335Google Scholar check
Keyword(s):
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The mechanical properties of biomaterial scaffolds are crucial for their efficacy in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. At the microscopic scale, the scaffold must be sufficiently rigid to support cell adhesion, spreading, and normal extracellular matrix deposition. Concurrently, at the macroscopic scale the scaffold must have mechanical properties that closely match those of the target tissue. The achievement of both goals may be possible by careful control of the scaffold architecture. Recently, electrospinning has emerged as an attractive means to form fused fibre scaffolds for tissue engineering. The diameter and relative orientation of fibres affect cell behaviour, but their impact on the tensile properties of the scaffolds has not been rigorously characterized. To examine the structure-property relationship, electrospun meshes were made from a polyurethane elastomer with different fibre diameters and orientations and mechanically tested to determine the dependence of the elastic modulus on the mesh architecture. Concurrently, a multiscale modelling strategy developed for type I collagen networks was employed to predict the mechanical behaviour of the polyurethane meshes. Experimentally, the measured elastic modulus of the meshes varied from 0.56 to 3.0 MPa depending on fibre diameter and the degree of fibre alignment. Model predictions for tensile loading parallel to fibre orientation agreed well with experimental measurements for a wide range of conditions when a fitted fibre modulus of 18 MPa was used. Although the model predictions were less accurate in transverse loading of anisotropic samples, these results indicate that computational modelling can assist in design of electrospun artificial tissue scaffolds. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Collections
Cite as
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Article
The Solid Mechanics of Cancer and Strategies for Improved Therapy
Stylianopoulos, T. (2017)Tumor progression and response to treatment is determined in large part by the generation of mechanical stresses that stem from both the solid and the fluid phase of the tumor. Furthermore, elevated solid stress levels can ...
-
Article
Multiscale computation for bioartificial soft tissues with complex geometries
Barocas, V. Η; Luo, X.-J.; Stylianopoulos, T.; Shephard, M. S. (2009)The mechanical function of soft collagenous tissues is inherently multiscale, with the tissue dimension being in the centimeter length scale and the underlying collagen network being in the micrometer length scale. This ...
-
Article
Evolution of osmotic pressure in solid tumors
Voutouri, C.; Stylianopoulos, T. (2014)The mechanical microenvironment of solid tumors includes both fluid and solid stresses. These stresses play a crucial role in cancer progression and treatment and have been analyzed rigorously both mathematically and ...