Evaluation of heat transfer in porous scaffolds under cryogenic treatment: a numerical study

AbstractThe present work had evaluated the effect of cryogenic treatment (233  K) on the degradation of polymeric biomaterial using a numerical model. The study on effect of cryogenic temperature on mechanical properties of cell-seeded biomaterials is very limited. However, no study had reported material degradation evaluation. Different structures of silk-fibroin-poly-elect rolyte complex (SFPEC) scaffolds had been designed by varying hole distance and hole diameter, with reference to existing literature. The size of scaffolds were maintained at 5\(\times\) 5 mm2. Current study evaluates the effect of cryogenic temperature on mechanical properties (corelated to degradation) of scaffold. Six parameters related to scaffold degradation: heat transfer, deformation gradient, stress, strain, strain tensor, and displacement gradient were analyzed for three different cooling rates ( − 5 K/min, − 2 K/min, and − 1 K/min). Scaffold degradation had been evaluated in the presence of water and four different concentrations of cryoprotectant solution. Heat distribution at various points (points_base, point_wall and point_core) on the region of interest (ROI) was fou nd similar for different cooling rates of the system. Thermal stress was found developing proportional to cooling rate, which leads to minimal variation in thermal stress over time. Strain tensor was found gradually decreasing due to attenuating response of deformation gradient. In addition to that, dipping ...
Source: Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing - Category: Biomedical Engineering Source Type: research