Modelling of average pore diameter and porosity of porous PCL/HA composite by using ANOVA analysis

Porous polycaprolactone/hydroxyapatite (PCL/HA) composite is said to be the most stable biodegradable scaffold for bone tissue regeneration. Hence, has initiated the researchers to study the reliability of that statement. The objective of this study is to develop mathematical relationship between the average pore diameter and porosity of porous PCL/HA composite and investigate the correlation between temperature and pressure of foaming process with the presence of HA content. The composite was prepared through solid state foaming process of supercritical carbon dioxide (ScCO2). In this study, temperatures and pressures of foaming process were varies from 40℃ to 45℃ and 10MPa, 20MPa and 30MPa, respectively. In addition, HA content also were varied at 10, 20, 30 and 40 wt%, respectively. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done by using Microsoft Excel. The develop model shows that average pore diameter is increased with temperature but will reduced as the interaction between pressure and HA content increased. Meanwhile, develop model for porosity shows that temperature is a sole effect in increasing the porosity value. The develop model also indicated that the designated model for porosity have a high value of coefficient of determination (R²) with 0.97 which means that it is highly fitted, while the develop model for average pore diameter is consistent with the theory which is towards the temperature and interactions between pressure and HA content. However, the fitness of the model is only 0.74 due to one data that is deviated far from the others. Therefore, validation with different values is recommended for future research.