Mathematical model for predicting topographical properties of poly (ε-caprolactone) melt electrospun scaffolds including the effects of temperature and linear transitional speed
Date
2015
Authors
Ko, Junghyuk
Mohtaram, Nima Khadem
Lee, Patrick C.
Willerth, Stephanie
Jun, Martin B.G.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
Abstract
Melt electrospinning can be used to fabricate various fibrous biomaterial scaffolds with a range of mechanical properties and varying topographical properties for different applications such as tissue scaffold and filtration and etc., making it a powerful technique. Engineering the topography of such electrospun microfibers can be easily done by tuning the operational parameters of this process. Recent experimental studies have shown promising results for fabricating various topographies, but there is not that body of work that focuses on using mathematical models of this technique to further understand the effect of operational parameters on these properties of microfiber scaffolds. In this study, we developed a novel mathematical model using numerical simulations to demonstrate the effect of temperature, feed rate and flow rate on controlling topographical properties such as fiber diameter of these spun fibrous scaffolds. These promising modelling results are also compared to our previous and current experimental results. Overall, we show that our novel mathematical model can predict the topographical properties affected by key operational parameters such as change in temperature, flow rate and feed rate and this model could serve as a promising strategy for the controlling of topographical properties of such structures for different applications.
Description
Keywords
Melt electrospinning, Modeling, Topography, Microfibers, Scaffolds
Citation
Ko, J., Mohtaram, N.K., Lee, P.C., Willerth, S.M. & Jun, M.B.G. (2015). Mathematical model for predicting topographical properties of poly (ε-caprolactone) melt electrospun scaffolds including the effects of temperature and linear transitional speed. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 25(4), 1-11.