Numerical modeling of hydrogel scaffold anisotropy during extrusion-based 3D printing for tissue engineering

Extrusion-based 3D printing is a widely utilized tool in tissue engineering, offering precise 3D control of bioinks to construct organ-sized biomaterial objects with hierarchically organized cellularized scaffolds. Topological properties in flowing polymers are determined by macromolecule conformation, namely orientation and stretch degree. We utilized the micro-macro approach to describe hydrogel macromolecule orientation during extrusion, offering a two-scale fluid behavior description. Results show that shear rate significantly drives alignment, while the interaction coefficient ($C_i$)captures particle interactions. This approach provides an initial but robust framework to model scaffold anisotropy, enabling optimization of the extrusion process while maintaining computational feasibility.