2024/2025

Jerry Ochola, Dr

Senior Lecturer of Industrial and Textile Engineering

Moi University, Eldoret

from September to December 2024
Born in 1982 in Rachuonyo, Kenya
Dr in Materials Engineering from Ghent University

Fellowship

Iso Lomso-Fellow

Arbeitsvorhaben

Computational Modelling of Tubular Fibrous Scaffold Structures for Cardiovascular Graft Applications

The design of tubular structures with desirable internal and external topology is a challenge for engineering cardiovascular grafts. Even though conventional vascular grafts can provide sufficient structural and biological support to tissues, they are expensive and susceptible to anatomical limitations. Hence, fibrous structures such as polymeric electrospun grafts have appeared as viable options for use as cardiovascular implants, due to their suitable extracellular matrix for tissue regeneration, better compliance matching, and improved mechanical properties, even though random fibre assembly is attributed to surface topography, mechanical properties, cell proliferation, and cell growth potential which makes fibrous scaffold structures desirable for use as cardiovascular grafts. These structures still have inherent design limitations due to the random morphology of their microstructure. There is, therefore, a need to investigate and optimise their design and performance. One such approach is the use of computational modelling. However, there is still insufficient information on three-dimensional (3D) computational modelling approaches for tubular fibrous structures that takes into account their constituent fibre alignment and inherent fibre randomness. This project, hence, proposes the use of a realistic 3D modelling approach to develop tubular fibrous scaffold structures. This will involve creating the scaffold models at the nanofibre level in a 3D interface using python® programming and MATLAB® scripting platforms. Further, parametric studies to mimic the biomechanical performance of the scaffold structure models after implantation as vascular grafts will be undertaken by applying realistic boundary conditions based on finite element analysis procedures in ABAQUS®/Explicit. It is envisaged that this modelling approach will provide the basis for an in-depth investigation of the scaffolds’ performance, viability, and reliability, which will further support their seamless integration as cardiovascular grafts.

Recommended Reading

Ochola, Jerry, Benny Malengier, Lode Daelemans, John Githaiga, and Lieva Van Langenhove (2018). “Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Tendon Repair Process Using Tubular Braided Fabrics.” AUTEX Research Journal 18 (2): 121–129. https://doi.org/10.1515/aut-2017-0007.
Ochola, Jerry, Benny Malengier, and Lieva Van Langenhove (2020). “Numerical Investigation of Flexural Bending in Biaxial Braided Structures for Flexor Tendon Repair.” Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering 13 (6): 93–101. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbise.2020.136009.
– (2022). “Numerical Analysis of Crimping Behaviour of Triaxial Braided Structures.” Journal of Industrial Textiles 51 (4S): 6484S–6502S. https://doi.org/10.1177/15280837211036215.