(374h) Constructing 3D Voronoi Structures: A Toolkit with Biomedical Case Studies

3D Voronoi scaffolds are widely applied in the field of additive manufacturing as they are known for their light-weight structural resilience and share many topological similarities to various natural (bone¹, tumours², lymph node^3,4) and synthetic environments (foam⁵, functionally gradient porous materials⁶). Unfortunately, the structural design features that promote these topological similarities (such as the number of vertices) are often unpredictable and require the trial and error of varying design features to achieve the desired 3D Voronoi structure. This research provides a toolkit, consisting of four equations, based on over 12,000 3D Voronoi structures.⁷ These equations allow design features, such as the number of generating points (G), to be efficiently and accurately predicted based on four desired structural parameters, the number of vertices, the number of edges, the average edge length and Euler’s characteristic. These equations were accurate within ±3 G and were validated for a wide range of parameter values and Voronoi network sizes. A design code has been completed allowing any of over 12,000 structures to be selected, easily adjusted based on user requirements, and 3D printed. Biomedical case studies relevant to T-cell culturing, bone scaffolds and kidney tumours have been conducted demonstrating the accuracy and efficiency of the design code.

References

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