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Hidden energy dissipation mechanism in nacre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2014

Zaiwang Huang ,
Zhiliang Pan ,
Haoze Li ,
Qiuming Wei  and
Xiaodong Li
Zaiwang Huang
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA
Zhiliang Pan
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina 28223, USA
Haoze Li
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA
Qiuming Wei*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina 28223, USA
Xiaodong Li*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA; and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA
*
a)Address all correspondence to these authors. e-mail: qwei@uncc.edu
b)e-mail: xl3p@virginia.edu
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Abstract

The defense mechanism that nacre (mother-of-pearl) uses to protect its living organism against high-speed predatory attack can provide lessons for engineered armor design. However, the underlying physics responsible for nacre's dynamic energy dissipation has hitherto remained a mystery to be uncovered. Here we demonstrate a new energy dissipation mechanism hidden in nacre and activated only upon dynamic loading, where the crack terminates its propagation along nacre's biopolymer interlayers but straightly impinges the aragonite platelets (95 vol%) in a transgranular manner. This intergranular–transgranular transition promotes the fracture energy dissipation, far exceeding that of the currently-used engineered ceramics. The mechanistic origin accounting for the enhancement of fracture energy dissipation is attributed to the unique nanoparticle architectured aragonite platelets. The dynamic manifestation in nacre can inspire a new route to design stronger-and-tougher engineered ceramic armors.

Keywords

nacreenergy dissipationnanoparticlecrack
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 29 , Issue 14 , 28 July 2014 , pp. 1573 - 1578
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2014 

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References

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