Fracture behavior of robocast HA/beta-TCP scaffolds studied by X-ray tomography and finite element modeling

Clemence Petit (1) , Sylvain Meille (1) , Eric Maire (1) , Laurent Gremillard (1) , Jérôme Adrien (1) , Grace Y. Lau , Antoni P. Tomsia (2)

1 MATEIS - Matériaux, ingénierie et science [Villeurbanne]
2 Materials Science Division [LBNL Berkeley]

Hydroxyapatite (HA)/alpha-tricalcium phosphate (alpha-TCP) cellular composites were fabricated by robocasting. Polymeric beads were intentionally added into the solid rods of the samples to generate artificial defects in order to characterize their influence on the fracture behavior in uniaxial compression. The samples were characterized by X-ray tomography at two resolutions to observe their architectural and microstructural features, for the latter using a local tomography mode. Then ex situ compression tests were performed to follow the deformation of the sample at low resolution by tomography. The images showed a brittle-like behavior with the propagation of a main crack parallel to the compression direction. Finally, the high-resolution images of the initial sample were processed to create a finite element (FE) model of the whole sample and including the presence of artificial defects in the struts. The ex situ test and the modeling show the influence of the artificial defects on the crack initiation.

Mots clés: Mechanical behavior; X-ray tomography; Porous ceramics; Calcium phosphate; Finite element modeling

Domaines: Matériaux

Clemence Petit, Sylvain Meille, Eric Maire, Laurent Gremillard, Jérôme Adrien, et al.. Fracture behavior of robocast HA/beta-TCP scaffolds studied by X-ray tomography and finite element modeling. Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2017, 37 (4), pp.1735-1745. ⟨10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2016.11.035⟩. ⟨hal-01814369⟩