Mechanical behaviour of a novel biomimetic lattice structure for bone scaffold

In this research, a new lattice structure based on the octagonal geometry and produced by Additive Manufacturing (AM) technique was proposed. Eight octagons with the same dimensions are combined to each other forming a ring. To obtain an isotropic lattice structure, cubic symmetry was imposed; thus, the unit cell is made of three rings mutually perpendicular, one ring for each principal direction. The aim of this study is the morphological and mechanical characterization of the novel unit cell to check its suitability to the biomechanical field, along with its comparison with other lattice structures currently used as bone scaffold. Electron Beam Melting (EBM) technique was used to produce Ti6Al4V ELI alloy specimens of the novel unit cell and of the truncated octahedron (Kelvin) cell. Three different unit cell sizes were selected to investigate the effect of cell dimensions on the mechanical properties. Morphological analysis was performed through a scanning electron microscope (SEM), to compare the actual structures to the designed ones. On the whole, the new lattice structure provided adequate mechanical properties to be considered as a bone substitute; further tests will be focused on its osteointegration capability.