Systematic Design and Optimization of Porous Bone Plates using Taguchi Method and Finite Element Analysis

Abstract

Solid bone fixation plates, although clinically effective, often induce stress shielding and impair periosteal blood flow due to their mismatch in stiffness with cortical bone. To overcome these limitations, this study proposes lattice-engineered porous bone plates designed to balance mechanical integrity and biological compatibility. A systematic parametric investigation was conducted by varying three design variables: crystal structure type (diamond, fluorite, and gyroid), porosity levels (50%, 70%, and 90%), and structure layout. Three-dimensional models were developed using nTopology, and finite element analysis (FEA) was performed under a static compressive load to evaluate stress distribution. A Taguchi L9 orthogonal array was employed to structure the experimental design, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to quantify the contribution of each design variable. The ANOVA results revealed that porosity is the dominant variable, accounting for 48.38% of the variation in performance. The 50% porosity configuration yielded the lowest compressive stresses, confirming that reduced porosity enhances structural stiffness and load-bearing capacity. Lattice type ranked second, contributing 20.77%, with the gyroid architecture exhibiting the most favorable stress distribution due to its smooth and continuous Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) geometry. Structural layout contributed 14.64%, where the 8×6×1 configuration demonstrated superior in-plane load transfer efficiency compared to through-thickness expansion. The optimized configuration achieved a balanced mechanical response by minimizing stress concentrations while maintaining structural lightweight characteristics. This study establishes a statistically validated design framework for porous bone fixation plates and highlights the critical role of controlled porosity in developing mechanically efficient and biologically compatible orthopedic implants.