Numerical modeling of pore size and distribution in foamed titanium

✍ Scribed by H. Shen; S.M. Oppenheimer; D.C. Dunand; L.C. Brinson

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 584 KB
• Volume: 38
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-6636
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mechmat.2005.06.027

✦ Synopsis

To facilitate the design and development of porous metals, simulation of their mechanical behavior is essential. As an alternative to complex tomography procedures, a methodology has been developed to construct a simulated microstructure that retains the essential features of the experimental material. The target material is a moderate porosity titanium foam that is being developed as a bone implant material. The methodology applies stereology theory to a foaming process based on growth of pressurized pores. Three-dimensional (3D) pore size and pore distribution information is derived from 2D sections for a sample with low porosity, early in the foaming process. A 3D microstructure is developed based on the 3D location and size distribution of the pores by use of a computational procedure. Pores are allowed to grow and coalesce in a simple simulated foaming process to achieve microstructures of higher porosity. These data have been used as inputs to write scripts of I-DEAS to create 3D finite element models which are then examined for basic global and local mechanical properties.