Crack behavior in nacre-like composites: a phase-field method

Hua-Chuan Tsai; Chih-Hung Chen; Yi-Chung Shu

doi:10.1117/12.2582658

22 March 2021 Crack behavior in nacre-like composites: a phase-field method

Hua-Chuan Tsai, Chih-Hung Chen, Yi-Chung Shu

Proceedings Volume 11586, Bioinspiration, Biomimetics, and Bioreplication XI; 1158608 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2582658
Event: SPIE Smart Structures + Nondestructive Evaluation, 2021, Online Only

Abstract

Many biological materials such as bone, teeth and nacre exhibit superior mechanical strength and toughness. These materials share similar hierarchical arrangement that stiff blocks are embedded in a soft matrix. For example, the sophisticated brick-and-mortar design in nacres can effectively increase the fracture toughness by a factor of 3,000 compared to its major component – mineral. Although extensive studies have been done attempting to understand the toughening of the nacre-like materials, the underlying mechanisms associated with crack behaviors are not fully clear yet. This study applies the phase-field method for crack behaviors in both layered structure and nacre-like materials to distinguish the importance of the commonly observed toughening mechanisms. First, we investigate the toughening of a simple layered structure, where the surfing boundary condition is imposed to suppress the crack deflection. We compute the maximum energy release rate using the J-integral technique to find out that the effective fracture toughness is much less than the experimentally measured fracture toughness of these bio- composite materials. Then we investigate the crack growth in a nacre-like material to obtain a phase diagram summarizing four different modes of crack growth: straight crack, interface crack, branching, and crack arrest for a range of structural parameters relevant to nacres, including the aspect ratio, volume fraction of mineral, elastic modulus mismatch and fracture resistance mismatch. Our results clarify the relation between the complex hierarchical microstructure and the toughening mechanisms, such as crack bridging, microcracking and tablet sliding.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Hua-Chuan Tsai, Chih-Hung Chen, and Yi-Chung Shu "Crack behavior in nacre-like composites: a phase-field method", Proc. SPIE 11586, Bioinspiration, Biomimetics, and Bioreplication XI, 1158608 (22 March 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2582658

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