what is titanium foam used for?
Ti foam is being investigated as a bone substitute material for fractures and other soft tissue injuries because it can mimic the properties of natural bone. It can reduce localized plasticity and stress concentrations in the fracture site, providing improved comfort.
It can also increase bone in-growth because of its porous surface geometry and coarse cell size, which facilitates faster bone growth. This study examines the effects of different space-holder geometries and porosities on mechanical properties, using ten titanium foam specimens manufactured through 3D electron beam melting (EBM) process.
During EBM, open-cell metal foams with different porosities and cell geometries were produced using a space-holder consisting of periodic truncated octahedron (Octa_A) and rhombic dodecahedron (Dodeca_A) polyhedrons [Table 2]. Compressive stress-strain curves were obtained through compressive tests at room temperature using a Shimadzu Autograph AG-50kNISD crosshead speed of 10 mm/min.
The strength of the present titanium foams depended on the cell geometry, as shown in Fig. 2. The truncated octahedron cells showed higher strength than the rhombic dodecahedron cells. This was probably due to the short cell edge length of the truncated octahedron cell.
The energy absorption was also found to be dependent on the cell geometry, as shown in fig. 3. Compared with the Octa_A and Dodeca_A specimens, the energy absorption of Octa_B and Dodeca_C specimens were lower. This is possibly due to the formation of macroscopic shear bands in some of the specimens, which decreased the absorbed energy.