Damage-tolerant material design motif derived from asymmetrical rotation

Motifs extracted from nature can lead to significant advances in materials design and have been used to tackle the apparent exclusivity between strength and damage tolerance of brittle materials. Here we present a segmental design motif found in arthropod exoskeleton, in which asymmetrical rotationa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 1289
Main Authors Wang, Wei, Chen, Shu Jian, Chen, Weiqiang, Duan, Wenhui, Lai, Jia Zie, Sagoe-Crentsil, Kwesi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Nature Publishing Group 11.03.2022
Nature Publishing Group UK
Nature Portfolio
Subjects
Arthropods
Asymmetry
Bearing capacity
Brittle materials
Brittleness
Cellular structure
Cement
Civil engineering
Compression
Compressive properties
Damage tolerance
Deformation
Degrees of freedom
Design
Energy storage
Exoskeleton
Exoskeletons
Failure analysis
Failure mechanisms
Geometry
Lightweight
Metamaterials
Protective coatings
Reptiles & amphibians
Residual stress
Rotational behavior
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Summary:Motifs extracted from nature can lead to significant advances in materials design and have been used to tackle the apparent exclusivity between strength and damage tolerance of brittle materials. Here we present a segmental design motif found in arthropod exoskeleton, in which asymmetrical rotational degree of freedom is used in damage control in contrast to the conventional interfacial shear failure mechanism of existing design motifs. We realise this design motif in a compression-resisting lightweight brittle material, demonstrating a unique progressive failure behaviour that preserves material integrity with 60-80% of load-bearing capacity at >50% of compressive strain. This rotational degree of freedom further enables a periodic energy absorbance pattern during failure yielding 200% higher strength than the corresponding cellular structure and up to 97.9% reduction of post-damage residual stress compared with ductile materials. Fifty material combinations covering 27 types of materials analysed display potential progressive failure behaviour by this design motif, thereby establishing a broad spectrum of potential applications of the design motif for advanced materials design, energy storage/conversion and architectural structures.
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ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-022-28991-5