ARUP; ISBN: 978-0-9562121-5-3 - CMBBE 2012 - Cardiff University

COMPUTATIONAL MODELING OF HIGHLY POROUS MATERIALS
WITH APPLICATION IN BIOMECHANICS
Z. Majer 1 , P. Marcián 2 , I. Dlouhý 3 , Z. Florian 4 , L. Řehořek 5 and R. Malina 6
1. ABSTRACT
Highly porous brittle materials, especially ceramic foams, were studied. These materials
have broad range of usage mainly in engineering practice and their application is
connected above all with their unique properties, mainly low relative weight connected
with large specific surface area. The tensile test of brittle, highly porous materials is
rather complicated from the point of view of the realization itself, also the economical
point of view as well. This is one of driving forces to create calculation models
respecting highly porous structure. Commercially available ceramic foam Vukopor® A
was investigated. Micro Computer Tomography has been used to obtaining valid data of
ceramic foam structure. The aim of this paper was creation of computational model and
using this model performs a comparison of struts different type under mechanical
loading. The finite element method was used for calculations. The material properties of
ceramic foam were determined experimentally.
2. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, highly porous brittle materials encounter a wide range of usage in
engineering practice, which is continuously increasing [1-2]. The interest in porous
ceramic materials is connected above all with their unique properties, such as low
relative weight, large specific surface area and high thermal insulation properties [3].
Using of highly porous materials in tissue engineering is very important, e.g. in bone
tissue replacement [4], etc. The structural similarity of spongy bone with porous
materials predetermines these materials as bone fillings. Suitably adapted foam
ceramics are, in contrast to commonly used inert ceramics, bioactive, which means that
the materials support integration between the bone and the implant and in many cases
these porous structures transform into bone tissue [5-6].
1 Ph.D., Institute of Solid Mechanics, Mechatronics and Biomechanics, Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Technická 2896/2, 616 69 Brno, Czech Republic
2 Ing., Institute of Solid Mechanics, Mechatronics and Biomechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,
Brno University of Technology, Technická 2896/2, 616 69 Brno, Czech Republic
3 Professor, Institute of Physics of Materials of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic,
Žižkova 22, 616 62 Brno, Czech Republic
4 CSc., Institute of Solid Mechanics, Mechatronics and Biomechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,
Brno University of Technology, Technická 2896/2, 616 69 Brno, Czech Republic
5 Ing., Institute of Physics of Materials of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic,
Žižkova 22, 616 62 Brno, Czech Republic
6 Ph.D., Institute of Physical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of
Technology, Technická 2896/2, 616 69 Brno, Czech Republic