Numerical modeling of pore size and distribution in foamed titanium

To facilitate the design and development of porous metals, simulation of their mechanical behavior is essential. As an alternative to complex tomography procedures, a methodology has been developed to construct a simulated microstructure that retains the essential features of the experimental material. The target material is a moderate porosity titanium foam that is being developed as a bone implant material. The methodology applies stereology theory to a foaming process based on growth of pressurized pores. Three-dimensional (3D) pore size and pore distribution information is derived from 2D sections for a sample with low porosity, early in the foaming process. A 3D microstructure is developed based on the 3D location and size distribution of the pores by use of a computational procedure. Pores are allowed to grow and coalesce in a simple simulated foaming process to achieve microstructures of higher porosity. These data have been used as inputs to write scripts of I-DEAS to create 3D finite element models which are then examined for basic global and local mechanical properties.