Scientists Test Bone-Styled 3D-Printed Construction Materials

Using bones as a material for buildings and homes is something quite strange. However, researchers always want to make their quirky ideas come closer to reality. A team of researchers from some prestigious universities in the U.S recently started diving into the internal structure of bones, expecting to make a stronger construction material by 3D-printing.

According to Pablo Zavattieri, a professor at Purdue Univ., a bone structure along with its columns can carry all the load and beams to become a solid block. With the studying of these materials, they may soon have a chance to make more robust 3D-printed alternatives for structures and buildings.

In comparison to previous understandings, beams in bones are said to boast more strength and stiffness. Called “trabeculae”, they form both horizontal struts and vertical ones in a bone structure. Researchers also said in a recent publication that those horizontal struts are the key factors for increasing the fatigue life of bone.

To make buildings more durable, scientists expect they can print 3D materials that share the same internal structures with bones. They further tested the theory with 3D-printed polymers with trabecular-like architectures.

According to mechanical analysis simulations, thicker horizontal struts will help the polymer last longer under load. What’s more, when scientists tried to thicken the struts, the mass of polymers didn’t increase significantly as we might think. From this experiment, they’re about to create lightweight construction materials and resilient with similar bone-styled polymers and even massive structures like buildings and homes based on these 3D-printed materials.