Mechanical Characterisation and Modelling of Electrospun Materials for Biomedical Applications

Electrospun nonwovens, due to their intrinsic beneficial properties, have found many applications in biomedical areas such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, or active wound management. Exploiting its porous structure, electrospun is often used as scaffolds for tissue growth which can be stimulated by mechanical properties of the structure. Cells proliferation can be controlled by stress distribution in the scaffold, thus improving its efficiency. Anticipation of this parameter is possible by using Finite Elements Model of electrospun structure presented in this study. Fully parametric model of nonwoven material with random fibrous distribution was developed enabling the calculation of mechanical properties of material on the basis of input parameters such as mechanical characteristics and geometry of single component fibres. Relatively low production ratio of electrospinning process and time consuming characterisation methods were motivation to develop the tool that would shorten the design and optimisation of electrospun materials. The model was validated experimentally by mechanical testing of electrospun material; modelling and experimental results were in a good agreement.