In the current study, we evaluate the equivalent stiffness of peritubular reinforcement effect (PRE) of porous dentine optimized by the thickness of peritubular dentine (PTD). Few studies to date have evaluated or quantitated the effect of PRE on composite dentine. The miscrostructure of porous dentine is captured by scanning electron microscope images, and then finite element modeling is used to quantitate the deformation and stiffness of the porous dentine structure. By optimizing the radius of PTD and dentine tubule (DT), the proposed FE model is able to demonstrate the effect of peritubular reinforcement on porous dentine stiffness. It is concluded that the dentinal equivalent stiffness is reduced and degraded with the increase of the radius of DT (i.e., porosity) in the certain ratio value of Ep/Ei and certain radius of PTD, where Ep is the PTD modulus and Ei is the intertubular dentine modulus. So in order to ensure the whole dentinal equivalent stiffness is not loss, the porosity should get some value while the Ep/Ei is certain. Thus, PTD prevents the stress concentration around DTs and reduces the risk of DTs failure. Mechanically, the overall role of PTD appears to enhance the stiffness of the dentine composite structure. These results provide some new and significant insights into the biological evolution of the optimal design for the porous dentine microstructure. These findings on the biological microstructure design of dentine materials are applicable to other engineering structural designs aimed at increasing the overall structural strength.
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