Analysis of orientation behavior in extruded tricalcium phosphate/poly(lactic acid) composite billet using finite element method and chain network model

Abstract

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) has been investigated as a material for a bone fixation device because it is bioabsorbable and nontoxic (Bergsma et al.;1993, Partio et al., 1992Yamamuro et al., 1994). However, the application of the PLA bone fixation device is limited because of low stiffness, osteoconductivity, and radiolucency. Therefore, the composites of PLA and bioactive ceramics have also been investigated. This study focuses on bioabsorbable tricalcium phosphate (TCP) as one of the various bioactive ceramics and investigates the TCP/PLA composite. The mechanical properties, particularly strength, of particle-filled composites, such as TCP/PLA, are decreased by the stress concentration around the filler particle. Therefore, the effect of the particle surface modification on the mechanical properties of the particle-filled composites is studied (Qiu et al., 2005;Cui et al., 2009;Kunze et al., 2003). Qiu et al. modified hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles using an L-lactic acid oligomer (Qiu et al., 2005). As a result, the tensile strength, Analysis of orientation behavior in extruded tricalcium phosphate/poly(lactic acid) composite billet using finite element method and chain network model