INVESTIGATION OF FLOW AND NUTRIENT TRANSPORT IN 3D POROUS SCAFFOLDS USED FOR BO

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中的一个 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目和 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金， 因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是 中心，不一定是研究者的机构。 这是一个建议，使用高端计算来描述流动和质量传输通过多孔支架在微观水平。我们的目标是采用图像的灌注生物反应器中使用的骨组织生长的实际支架，以计算流量和材料特性，并为了开发模型，可以描述营养物质的转移到骨细胞灌注生物反应器。计算方法是使用流动模拟结合拉格朗日方法。格子玻尔兹曼方法（LBM）是模拟复杂几何形状（如多孔支架）中小尺度流动的首选方法，它将与我们实验室开发的拉格朗日标量跟踪（LST）方法相结合，用于模拟传质。现代可视化技术，如微计算断层扫描，将提供微观尺度（10微米分辨率）的3D孔隙空间的详细数字视图，这将作为LBM/LST方法应用的计算域。骨组织随时间的发育将与支架构型相关，以便提出用于骨组织生长的最佳支架。建模结果将通过实验进行验证。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. This is a proposal to use high end computing to describe flow and mass transport through porous scaffolds in the microscopic level. The objective is to employ images of actual scaffolds used in perfusion bioreactors for bone tissue growth in order to calculate flow and material properties, and in order to develop models that can describe the transfer of nutrients to the bone cells in perfusion bioreactors. The computational approach is to use a flow simulation in conjunction with a Lagrangian method. The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is the method of choice for simulating small scale flows in complicated geometries (like porous scaffolds), and it will be combined with the Lagrangian scalar tracking (LST) methodology developed in our laboratory for simulating mass transfer. Modern visualization techniques, like micro-Computing Tomography scans, will provide a detailed, digital view of the 3D pore space in a microscopic scale (10 microns resolution), which will serve as the computational domain for the application of the LBM/LST methodology. Bone tissue development with time will be correlated to the scaffold configuration, in order to propose optimal scaffolds for bone tissue growth. Modeling results will be validated with experiments.