Kavli Affiliate: Chiara Daraio
| First 5 Authors: Chelsea Fox, Kyle Chen, Micaela Antonini, Tommaso Magrini, Chiara Daraio
| Summary:
As a result of evolution, many biological materials have developed irregular
structures that lead to outstanding mechanical properties, like high
stiffness-to-weight ratios and good energy absorption. To reproduce these
properties in synthetic materials, biomimicry typically replicates the
irregular natural structure, often leading to fabrication challenges. Here, we
present a bioinspired material design method that instead reduces the irregular
natural structure to a finite set of building blocks, also known as tiles, and
rules to connect them, and then uses these elements as instructions to generate
synthetic materials with mechanical properties similar to the biological
materials. We demonstrate the method using the pericarp of the orange, a member
of the citrus family known for its protective, energy-absorbing capabilities.
We generate polymer samples and characterize them under quasi-static and
dynamic compression and observe spatially-varying stiffness and good energy
absorption, as seen in the biological materials. By quantifying which tiles and
connectivity rules locally deform in response to loading, we determine how to
spatially control the stiffness and energy absorption.
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