Permeability and tomography-based microstructural analysis of ultra-porous bioactive glass scaffolds

Reliable and accurate quantification of permeability and microstructural characteristics of bioactive glass and ceramic scaffolds, which play a key role in dictating the mechanical and biological performance of the material, is challenging especially for highly-porous implants with intricate, delicate structures. In this study, we determine the major mass transport properties of exceptionally-porous bioactive glass scaffolds produced by vat photopolymerization through the implementation of the Ergun-Wu resistance model being properly supplied with experimental data. Specifically, Darcian intrinsic permeability determined via acoustic measurements and average pore diameter from the advanced micro-tomographic imaging of scaffolds were used as input to the model. An accurate and robust statistical analysis further confirms the soundness of the results obtained and of the overall methodological approach.