2026 IMechE Simulation and Modelling Conference

The IMechE Simulation and Modelling Conference 2026 was hosted by The IET in Birmingham at the Austin Court on 29^th – 30^th of September. The 2026 edition gave an insightful overview of major themes that engineers in the UK are grappling with with regards to numerical and computational modelling in aero/auto, nuclear and healthcare.

The MMM Lab was invited to give a lecture on the work we do for the Design, Manufacture and V&V (validation and verification) of multifunctional structures to be used in regenerative medicine and bespoke implantable bone-healing devices.

The MMM Lab lecture was entitled “Computational Mechano-Fluidic strategies to inform the postprocessing of Additively Manufactured multifunctional Titanium scaffolds” and included a case study that demonstrates how fluid-mechanical computation can inform the post-processing stage after the printing of a TPMS sheet-based gyroid using cp Titanium in an SLM machine. This manufacturing process creates walls that are rough and present “satellite particles”, this is, half-molten particles that get stuck onto the surfaces as the laser passes the melting track on the powder bed. These flaws create a discrepancy between the as-designed intent and the actual as-manufactured lattice. Post-processing to eliminate those is a must for bioengineering applications, as the particles could become loose when the implant is deployed in service and the roughness diminish mechanical performance.

Thanks to Deeksha Bhandary and her orga-team or delivering the 6th ed. of this National Conference.

Congratulations Mudassar !

Mudassar Khalil, a valued member of the MMM Lab, has defended his PhD viva successfully and he will graduate as a Doctor at the next Graduation Ceremony.

His PhD thesis is entitled “A Framework for the Design, Manufacture and Validation of Additively Manufactured Titanium Scaffolds” and can be read here.

This work establishes an integrated framework for the design, characterisation, and validation of metallic scaffolds, providing new insights into the relationship between scaffold topology, manufacturing-induced deviations, and mechanical performance. The findings contribute to the development of a more reliable workflow for the realisation of bespoke titanium scaffolds for tissue engineering applications.

A graphical summary of his PhD work appears below:

Congratulations Mudassar! An excellent job! we are very proud of your achievement.

Physical validation of an in-silico designed alloy for bioengineering applications

We have worked with Alloyed Ltd to design and validate alloys meant to be strong contenders as candidates for making orthopaedic and medical devices.

There are three aspects that we consider when we study alloys in the MMM Lab: their physical and mechanical performance, their chemistry, and their biological behaviour (once the alloys are exposed to living cells, esp. those that are meant to form bone).

This multiobjective optimisation revealed a very interesting candidate:

There was an alloy that climbed to the top of our shortlisting, and the combination of alloying elements has also attracted much interest from the scientific community: a Titanium alloy containing TiNbTaZrMoSn elements. This alloy is attractive because it does not contain toxic elements (such as Al, V or Ni), and is meant to be a beta-stabilised alloy, which means that its stiffness is lower than that of pure Titanium and therefore closer to that of bone.

In the first instance Alloyed Ltd used computational methods to predict which combination of those elements, and in which quantities, would render the optimum alloy with regards to stiffness, strength, transition temperature and biocompatibility. The selected alloy was then realised in our Multifunctional Materials Lab and tested for physical, mechanical, chemical and biological performance. The experimental results were then compared to the predictions we had for this designed alloy.

While the thermomechanical computational predictions matched reality well, the biological behaviour results were way off.

It looks as if the body of work that has led to models and numerical calculations of the metallurgical phase, the mechanical properties and the transition temperatures have reached maturity. However, this is not the case for the biological prediction models of biocompatibility and osteoblastogenesis (i.e., how fast and well cells commit to becoming a bone-forming cell). These models are still too simplistic and we will have to consider more aspects of the cell/surface/bulk interaction to make them faithful to what is going on in reality. In this way we will be able to run in-silico predictions which will yield trustworthy results. This would be game-changing, as we will be able to accelerate the design & manufacture & deployment cycle that medical devices require to achieve better products to help heal faster and long-term. For example, tailoring materials to the patient to fulfil their personalised needs.

This work has been published in the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials and can be read here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2021.104858…

This is a first step towards a complete model of cyber mechano-biological properties. The work continues in the MMM Lab. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2021.104858