Simulation of Microporous Architecture's Effects on Fluid Flow Characteristics in Cell Seeding

Microscaffolds play a crucial role in cell culturing. They can be designed and produced in different ways depending on the applications and materials used. The cell medium (fluid) transports the cells into the microscaffold and is an effective factor for cell growth and stimulation. The architecture of microscaffolds influences fluid flow characteristics such as velocity and shear stress during cell seeding. Shear stress is known to stimulate the cells in scaffolds. Therefore, it is interesting for biomaterial researchers and scaffold designers, to understand how the shape and porosity of the microscaffold influences the dynamics of fluid flows. In this work, we modeled the flow in three-dimensional rectangular, cylindrical, and spherical micropore networks with various porosities. The velocity distribution and mean wall shear stress are computed and compared for a single-phase flow. It is noted that grid independency is achieved when any further increase in the number of cells did not adversely affect the simulation results. Results show that spherical micropores with porosity higher than 80% are suitable for those types of cells that must be stimulated with low shear stress. In contrast, rectangular and cylindrical micropore networks can be used for cells that should be stimulated with high shear stress.