Cubic Lattice Structures of Ti6Al4V under Compressive Loading: Towards Assessing the Performance for Hard Tissue Implants Alternative

Sahil Dhiman; Malkeet Singh; Sarabjeet Singh Sidhu; Marjan Bahraminasab; Danil Yurievich Pimenov; Tadeusz Mikolajczyk

doi:10.3390/ma14143866

Cubic Lattice Structures of Ti6Al4V under Compressive Loading: Towards Assessing the Performance for Hard Tissue Implants Alternative

Materials (Basel). 2021 Jul 10;14(14):3866. doi: 10.3390/ma14143866.

Authors

Sahil Dhiman¹, Malkeet Singh^{2

3}, Sarabjeet Singh Sidhu⁴, Marjan Bahraminasab^{5

6}, Danil Yurievich Pimenov⁷, Tadeusz Mikolajczyk⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala 147004, India.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Roopnagar 140001, India.
³ Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sardar Beant Singh State University, Gurdaspur 14521, India.
⁵ Nervous System Stem Cells Research Center, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan 3514799422, Iran.
⁶ Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan 3514799422, Iran.
⁷ Department of Automated Mechanical Engineering, South Ural State University, Lenin Prosp. 76, 454080 Chelyabinsk, Russia.
⁸ Department of Production Engineering, UTP University of Science and Technology, Al. prof. S. Kaliskiego 7, 85-796 Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Abstract

Porous Lattice Structure (PLS) scaffolds have shown potential applications in the biomedical domain. These implants' structural designs can attain compatibility mechanobiologically, thereby avoiding challenges related to the stress shielding effect. Different unit cell structures have been explored with limited work on the fabrication and characterization of titanium-based PLS with cubic unit cell structures. Hence, in the present paper, Ti6Al4V (Ti64) cubic PLS scaffolds were analysed by finite element (FE) analysis and fabricated using selective laser melting (SLM) technique. PLS of the rectangular shape of width 10 mm and height 15 mm (ISO: 13314) with an average pore size of 600-1000 μm and structure porosity percentage of 40-70 were obtained. It has been found that the maximum ultimate compressive strength was found to be 119 MPa of PLS with a pore size of 600 μm and an overall relative density (RD) of 57%. Additionally, the structure's failure begins from the micro-porosity formed during the fabrication process due to the improper melting along a plane inclined at 45 degree.

Keywords: additive manufacturing; compressive strength; cubic unit cell; finite element analysis; porous lattice structures; selective laser melting; titanium.