Development of methodologies to predict the mechanical behaviour of biodegradable structures during their hydrolytic degradation

• Grant number: 16/03555-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: June 01, 2016
• End date: May 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Mechanics of Solids
• Principal Investigator: André Ferreira Costa Vieira
• Grantee: André Ferreira Costa Vieira
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Pedro Yoshito Noritomi ; Volnei Tita

Abstract

Biodegradable polymers are an advantageous alternative to develop new regenerative concepts for implantable biomedical devices for soft tissues repair, such as ligaments, cartilage, skin, blood vessels, etc. These devices must temporarily replace the biomechanical functions, and gradually transfer them to the neo-tissue formed over this scaffold, while the material will degrade and ultimately erode and be assimilated by the host tissue. Ideally, the device should degrade its mechanical properties compatibly with the regeneration time of the biologic tissue. However, there is still a lack of design and dimensioning tools for these devices and methods to predict and simulate their mechanical behaviour during hydrolytic degradation. In the ambit of this context, the main scope of this research project is the development of methodologies able to simulate the mechanical behaviour of biodegradable polymers, during several steps of degradation. Hence, the iterative convergence towards an optimal solution can be obtained computationally, through material models implemented in a finite element software package, such as ABAQUS®. To fulfil the main scope of this research project, we will use a similar approach used in a previous work of the responsible researcher, which consists on combining kinetic models of hydrolysis with constitutive models. These models must be able to simulate the viscoplastic mechanical behaviour of materials, since the scaffold in service is submitted to dynamic or static loads, in many cases higher than yielding. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

TAGUTI, MARCOS V. H.; FRANCOSO, ADRIANO; RIBEIRO, MARCELO L.; VIEIRA, ANDRE F. C.. Numerical approach to simulate the mechanical behavior of biodegradable structures considering degradation time and heterogeneous stress field. POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, v. 60, n. 7, APR 2020. (16/03555-1)