Methods and systems for characterizing porosity of additively manufactured bone scaffolds

Abstract

A method for characterizing a bone tissue scaffold produced by an additive manufacturing process is provided. An image of the bone tissue scaffold is first captured and a boundary of the bone tissue scaffold is determined. One or more surface features of the bone tissue scaffold are subsequently detected using an edge detection algorithm, with the one or more surface features including one or more pores and/or one or more highlights. Edges that correspond to a pore using a pore filling algorithm are identified and the surface porosity of the bone tissue scaffold is thereby mapped. Systems for characterizing a bone tissue scaffold are also provided and make use of an image capture device for capturing an image of the bone tissue scaffold, as well as a processor for analyzing the image via instructions stored on the processor.

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