Related papers: Functional significance of lamellar architecture i…
Cortical bone is a tough biological material composed of tube-like osteons embedded in the organic matrix surrounded by weak interfaces known as cement lines. The cement lines provide a microstructurally preferable crack path, hence…
Similar to nacre or brick-and-mortar structures, imbricated lamellar structures are widely found in natural and man-made materials and are of interest for biomimetics. These structures are known to be rather insensitive to defects and to…
The staggered (or imbricated) lamellar "brick-and-mortar" nanostructure of nacre endows nacre with strength and fracture toughness values exceeding by an order of magnitude those of the constituents, and inspires the advent of new robust…
Achieving damage tolerance in composite materials remains a central challenge in materials science. Conventional strategies often rely on filler incorporation or chemical modification, which can limit energy dissipation and constrain…
Recently, it has been found experimentally that hydrated nacre exhibits a nonlinear mechanical response. While mechanical nonlinearity has been shown to be important in other biological structures, such as spider webs, the implications of…
Sacrificial bonds and hidden length (SBHL) in structural molecules provide a mechanism for energy dissipation at the nanoscale. It is hypothesized that their presence leads to greater fracture toughness than what is observed in materials…
In order to design tougher materials, it is crucial to understand the relationship between their composition and their resistance to fracture. To this end, we investigate the fracture toughness of usual sodium silicate glasses (NS) and…
The structural integrity of microtubules is paramount for cellular function. We present a theoretical analysis of their lattice fracture, focusing on the influence of multi-seam structures arising from monomer defects and aiming to provide…
In our previous paper (Eur. Phys. J. E 4, 121 (2001)) we proposed a coarse-grained elastic energy for nacre, or stratified structure of hard and soft layers. We then analyzed a crack running perpendicular to the layers and suggested one…
Glasses have numerous applications due to their exceptional transparency, however, poor fracture and impact resistance limit their applications as an engineering material. One relatively recent approach to improve the mechanical properties…
Since its discovery, the deep-sea glass sponge Euplectella aspergillum has attracted interest in its mechanical properties and beauty. Its skeletal system is composed of amorphous hydrated silica and is arranged in a highly regular and…
Intriguing physical phenomena observed in natural materials have inspired the development of several engineering materials with dramatically improved performance. Marine sponge glass fibers, for instance, have attracted interest in recent…
Designing strong and robust bio-inspired structures requires an understanding of how function arises from the architecture and geometry of materials found in nature. We draw from trabecular bone, a lightweight bone tissue that exhibits a…
Structural hierarchy, in which materials possess distinct features on multiple length scales, is ubiquitous in nature; diverse biological materials, such as bone, cellulose, and muscle, have as many as ten hierarchical levels. Structural…
Structural cellular materials in nature, such as wood, trabecular bone, corals, and dentin combine complex biological functions with structural roles, such as skeletal support and impact protection1,2. They feature complex structural…
Many biological tissues, such as bones and ligaments, are fibrous. The geometrical structure of these tissues shows that they exhibit a similar hierarchy in their ultra-structure and macro-structure. The aim of this work is to develop a…
Experiments have revealed that membrane proteins can form two-dimensional clusters with regular translational and orientational protein arrangements, which may allow cells to modulate protein function. However, the physical mechanisms…
Natural hard composites like human bone possess a combination of strength and toughness that exceeds that of their constituents and of many engineered composites. This augmentation is attributed to their complex hierarchical structure,…
Living systems are built of multiscale-composites: materials formed of components with different properties that are assembled in complex micro- and nano-structures. Such biological multiscale-composites often show outstanding physical…
Brittle materials fail catastrophically. In consequence of their limited flaw-tolerance, failure occurs by localized fracture and is typically a dynamic process. Recently, experiments on epithelial cell monolayers have revealed that this…