Multiscale Homogenization Based Analysis of Polymeric Nanofiber Scaffolds
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abstract
In this paper a two scale asymptotic expansion homogenization using a spectral/hp finite element approach is used to estimate the mechanical properties of polymeric poly-lactic acid nanofibers. The mechanical properties of the nanofibers are derived hierarchically from the elastic modulus of the crystalline lactic acid monomer and subsequently the mesoscale properties of the shish-kebab fibril is derived by the finite element based homogenization method. The fiber modulus is further refined by the Northolt and van der Hout's continuous chain theory. The continuum chain model is modified to include the effect of the finite element spectral degree and the volume fractions of the shish-kebab phases. Finally, the effective property of the scaffold is estimated using the well known micromechanics methods. The significance of this paper lies in the hierarchical transfer of material properties from the lowest atomistic scale to the highest scales without resorting to any experimental data. The theoretical results are found to correlate well with the reported experimental results.
