Search Results
A novel approach to fabricate load-bearing Ti6Al4V-Barium titanate piezoelectric bone scaffolds by coupling electron beam melting and field-assisted sintering
2022, Riaz, Abdullah, Polley, Christian, Lund, Henrik, Springer, Armin, Seitz, Hermann
A critical-size bone defect in load-bearing areas is a challenging clinical problem in orthopaedic surgery. Titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) scaffolds have advantages because of their biomechanical stability but lack electrical activity, which hinders their further use. This work is focused on the fabrication of Ti6Al4V-Barium Titanate (BaTiO3) bulk composite scaffolds to combine the biomechanical stability of Ti6Al4V with electrical activity through BaTiO3. For the first time, a hollow cylindrical Ti6Al4V is additively manufactured by electron beam melting and combined with piezoelectric BaTiO3 powder for joint processing in field-assisted sintering. Scanning electron microscope images on the interface of the Ti6Al4V-BaTiO3 composite scaffold showed that after sintering, the Ti6Al4V lattice structure bounded with BaTiO3 matrix without its major deformation. The Ti6Al4V-BaTiO3 scaffold had average piezoelectric constants of (0.63 ± 0.12) pC/N directly after sintering due to partial dipole alignment of the BaTiO3 tetragonal phase, which increased to (4.92 ± 0.75) pC/N after a successful corona poling. Moreover, the nanoindentation values of Ti6Al4V exhibited an average hardness and Young's modulus of (5.9 ± 0.9) GPa and (130 ± 14) GPa, and BaTiO3 showed (4.0 ± 0.6) GPa and (106 ± 10) GPa, respectively. It reveals that the Ti6Al4V is the harder and stiffer part in the Ti6Al4V-BaTiO3 composite scaffold. Such a scaffold has the potential to treat critical-size bone defects in load-bearing areas and guide tissue regeneration by physical stimulation.
Transparent model concrete with tunable rheology for investigating flow and particle-migration during transport in pipes
2020, Auernhammer, Günter K., Fataei, Shirin, Haustein, Martin A., Patel, Himanshu P., Schwarze, Rüdiger, Secrieru, Egor, Mechtcherine, Viktor
The article describes the adaption and properties of a model concrete for detailed flow studies. To adapt the yield stress and plastic viscosity of the model concrete to the corresponding rheological properties of real concrete, the model concrete is made of a mixture of glass beads and a non-Newtonian fluid. The refractive index of the non-Newtonian fluid is adjusted to the refractive index of the glass beads by the addition of a further constituent. The rheological properties of the model concrete are characterised by measurements in concrete rheometers. Finally, the first exemplary results from experiments with the model concrete are presented, which give incipient impressions of the complex internal dynamics in flowing concrete.
Designing the microstructural constituents of an additively manufactured near β Ti alloy for an enhanced mechanical and corrosion response
2022, Hariharan, Avinash, Goldberg, Phil, Gustmann, Tobias, Maawad, Emad, Pilz, Stefan, Schell, Frederic, Kunze, Tim, Zwahr, Christoph, Gebert, Annett
Additive manufacturing of near β-type Ti-13Nb-13Zr alloys using the laser powder bed fusion process (LPBF) opens up new avenues to tailor the microstructure and subsequent macro-scale properties that aids in developing new generation patient-specific, load-bearing orthopedic implants. In this work, we investigate a wide range of LPBF parameter space to optimize the volumetric energy density, surface characteristics and melt track widths to achieve a stable process and part density of greater than 99 %. Further, optimized sample states were achieved via thermal post-processing using standard capability aging, super-transus (900 °C) and sub-transus (660 °C) heat treatment strategies with varying quenching mediums (air, water and ice). The applied heat treatment strategies induce various fractions of α, martensite (α', α'') in combination with the β phase and strongly correlated with the observed enhanced mechanical properties and a relatively low elastic modulus. In summary, our work highlights a practical strategy for optimizing the mechanical and corrosion properties of a LPBF produced near β-type Ti-13Nb-13Zr alloy via careful evaluation of processing and post-processing steps and the interrelation to the corresponding microstructures. Corrosion studies revealed excellent corrosion resistances of the heat-treated LPBF samples comparable to wrought Ti-13Nb-13Zr alloys.
Direct observation of nanocrystal-induced enhancement of tensile ductility in a metallic glass composite
2021, Gammer, Christoph, Rentenberger, Christian, Beitelschmidt, Denise, Minor, Andrew M., Eckert, Jürgen
Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have attracted wide interest, but their successful application is hindered by their low ductility at room temperature. Therefore, the use of composites of a BMG matrix with crystalline secondary phases has been proposed to overcome this drawback. In the present work we demonstrate the fabrication of a tailored BMG nanocomposite containing a high density of monodisperse nanocrystals with a size of around 20 nm using a combination of mechanical and thermal treatment of Cu36Zr48Al8Ag8 well below the crystallization temperature. Direct observations of the interaction of the nanocrystals with a shear band during in situ deformation in a transmission electron microscope demonstrate that the achieved nanocomposite has the potential to inhibit catastrophic fracture in tension. This demonstrates that a sufficient number of nanoscale structural heterogeneities can be a route towards BMG composites with superior mechanical properties.
Thermal annealing to influence the vapor sensing behavior of co-continuous poly(lactic acid)/polystyrene/multiwalled carbon nanotube composites
2020, Li, Yilong, Pionteck, Jürgen, Pötschke, Petra, Voit, Brigitte
With the main purpose of being used as vapor leakage detector, the volatile organic compound (VOC) vapor sensing properties of conductive polymer blend composites were studied. Poly(lactic acid)/polystyrene/multi-walled carbon nanotube (PLA/PS/MWCNT) based conductive polymer composites (CPCs) in which the polymer components exhibit different interactions with the vapors, were prepared by melt mixing. CPCs with a blend composition of 50/50 wt% resulted in the finest co-continuous structure and selective MWCNT localization in PLA. Therefore, these composites were selected for sensor tests. Thermal annealing was applied aiming to maintain the blend structure but improving the sensing reversibility of CPC sensors towards high vapor concentrations. Different sensing protocols were applied using acetone (good solvent for PS and PLA) and cyclohexane (good solvent for PS but poor solvent for PLA) vapors. Increasing acetone vapor concentration resulted in increased relative resistance change (Rrel) of CPCs. Saturated cyclohexane vapor resulted in lower response than nearly saturated acetone vapor. The thermal annealing at 150 °C did not change the blend morphology but increased the PLA crystallinity, making the CPC sensors more resistant to vapor stimulation, resulting in lower Rrel but better reversibility after vapor exposure.
Controlled synthesis of mussel-inspired Ag nanoparticle coatings with demonstrated in vitro and in vivo antibacterial properties
2021, Wang, Xiaowei, Xu, Kehui, Cui, Wendi, Yang, Xi, Maitz, Manfred F., Li, Wei, Li, Xiangyang, Chen, Jialong
The in-situ formation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) via dopamine-reduction of Ag+ has been widely utilized for titanium implants to introduce antibacterial properties. In previous studies, the preparation of AgNPs has focused on controlling the feeding concentrations, while the pH of the reaction solution was ignored. Herein, we systematically determined the influence of various pH (4, 7, 10) and Ag+ concentrations (0.01, 0.1 mg/mL) on the AgNPs formation, followed by the evaluation of the antibacterial properties in vitro and in vivo. The results revealed that an alkaline environment was favourable for AgNP formation and resulted in more particles. Although the AgNPs bearing Ti had lower biocompatibilities, it was significantly improved after 7 days of mineralization in simulated body fluid. The outstanding antibacterial property of the AgNPs was well maintained after one day and seven days of implantation. Moreover, 3D micro-CT modelling showed that the pH 10/0.1 group exhibited remarkable osteogenesis, which may be due to their strong antibacterial properties and ability to promote mineralization. Therefore, we have demonstrated that the solution pH was as important as the feeding Ag+ concentration in determining AgNP formation, and it has paved the way for developing various AgNP-loaded surfaces that could meet different antibacterial needs.
Additively manufactured AlSi10Mg lattices – Potential and limits of modelling as-designed structures
2022, Gebhardt, Ulrike, Gustmann, Tobias, Giebeler, Lars, Hirsch, Franz, Hufenbach, Julia Kristin, Kästner, Markus
Additive manufacturing overcomes the restrictions of classical manufacturing methods and enables the production of near-net-shaped, complex geometries. In that context, lattice structures are of high interest due to their superior weight reduction potential. AlSi10Mg is a well-known alloy for additive manufacturing and well suited for such applications due to its high strength to material density ratio. It has been selected in this study for producing bulk material and complex geometries of a strut-based lattice type (rhombic dodecahedron). A detailed characterisation of as-built and heat-treated specimens has been conducted including microstructural analyses, identification of imperfections and rigorous mechanical testing under different load conditions. An isotropic elastic–plastic material model is deduced on the basis of tension test results of bulk material test specimens. Performed experiments under compression, shear, torsion and tension load are compared to their virtual equivalents. With the help of numerical modelling, the overall structural behaviour was simulated using the detailed lattice geometry and was successfully predicted by the presented numerical models. The discussion of the limits of this approach aims to evaluate the potential of the numerical assessment in the modelling of the properties for novel lightweight structures.
Laser powder bed fusion of a superelastic Cu-Al-Mn shape memory alloy
2021, Babacan, N., Pauly, S., Gustmann, T.
Dense and crack-free specimens of the shape memory alloy Cu71.6Al17Mn11.4 (at.%) were produced via laser powder bed fusion across a wide range of process parameters. The microstructure, viz. grain size, can be directly tailored within the process and with it the transformation temperatures (TTs) shifted to higher values by raising the energy input. The microstructure, and the superelastic behavior of additively manufactured samples were assessed by a detailed comparison with induction melted material. The precipitation of the α phase, which inhibit the martensitic transformation, were not observed in the additively manufactured samples owing to the high intrinsic cooling rates during the fabrication process. Fine columnar grains with a strong [001]-texture along the building direction lead to an enhanced yield strength compared to the coarse-grained cast samples. A maximum recoverable strain of 2.86% was observed after 5% compressive loading. The first results of our approach imply that laser powder bed fusion is a promising technique to directly produce individually designed Cu-Al-Mn shape memory parts with a pronounced superelasticity at room temperature.
Controlling the Young’s modulus of a ß-type Ti-Nb alloy via strong texturing by LPBF
2022, Pilz, Stefan, Gustmann, Tobias, Günther, Fabian, Zimmermann, Martina, Kühn, Uta, Gebert, Annett
The ß-type Ti-42Nb alloy was processed by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) with an infrared top hat laser configuration aiming to control the Young’s modulus by creating an adapted crystallographic texture. Utilizing a top hat laser, a microstructure with a strong 〈0 0 1〉 texture parallel to the building direction and highly elongated grains was generated. This microstructure results in a strong anisotropy of the Young’s modulus that was modeled based on the single crystal elastic tensor and the experimental texture data. Tensile tests along selected loading directions were conducted to study the mechanical anisotropy and showed a good correlation with the modeled data. A Young’s modulus as low as 44 GPa was measured parallel to the building direction, which corresponds to a significant reduction of over 30% compared to the Young’s modulus of the Gaussian reference samples (67–69 GPa). At the same time a high 0.2% yield strength of 674 MPa was retained. The results reveal the high potential of LPBF processing utilizing a top hat laser configuration to fabricate patient-specific implants with an adapted low Young’s modulus along the main loading direction and a tailored mechanical biofunctionality.
Structure-property relationships of imperfect additively manufactured lattices based on triply periodic minimal surfaces
2022, Günther, Fabian, Hirsch, Franz, Pilz, Stefan, Wagner, Markus, Gebert, Annett, Kästner, Markus, Zimmermann, Martina
Lattices based on triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) have recently attracted increasing interest, but their additive manufacturing (AM) is fraught with imperfections that compromise their structural integrity. Initial research has addressed the influence of process-induced imperfections in lattices, but so far numerical work for TPMS lattices is insufficient. Therefore, in the present study, the structure–property relationships of TPMS lattices, including their imperfections, are investigated experimentally and numerically. The main focus is on a biomimetic Schoen I-WP network lattice made of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) processed Ti-42Nb designed for bone tissue engineering (BTE). The lattice is scanned by computed tomography (CT) and its as-built morphology is examined before a modeling procedure for artificial reconstruction is developed. The structure–property relationships are analyzed by experimental and numerical compression tests. An anisotropic elastoplastic material model is parameterized for finite element analyses (FEA). The numerical results indicates that the reconstruction of the as-built morphology decisively improves the prediction accuracy compared to the ideal design. This work highlights the central importance of process-related imperfections for the structure–property relationships of TPMS lattices and proposes a modeling procedure to capture their implications.