Tissue Engineering Scaffold Percolation

Biomedical Engineering

How It Works

Porous scaffolds used in tissue engineering must feature interconnected pore architectures to enable cell migration, vascular ingrowth, and nutrient transport. Statistical percolation theory dictates that an open spanning cluster for transport emerges only when the scaffold void fraction exceeds the critical percolation threshold (p_c). Above this threshold, effective nutrient conductivity scales nonlinearly with porosity.

Governing Equation
P_inf ∝ (p - p_c)^β for p > p_c , K_transport = K₀ · (p - p_c)^μ