Biological Materials Science: Biological Materials Science I
Sponsored by: TMS Functional Materials Division, TMS Structural Materials Division, TMS: Biomaterials Committee
Program Organizers: David Restrepo, University of Texas at San Antonio; Steven Naleway, University of Utah; Jing Du, Pennsylvania State University; Ning Zhang, Baylor University

Wednesday 8:30 AM
March 17, 2021
Room: RM 12
Location: TMS2021 Virtual

Session Chair: Steven Naleway, The University of Utah; David Restrepo, The University of Texas at San Antonio


8:30 AM  Invited
Understanding the Role of Ridged Geometries in the Telson of the Mantis Shrimp: Adwait Trikanad1; Wei Huang2; Jesus Rivera3; David Kisailus2; Pablo Zavattieri1; 1Purdue University; 2University of California, Irvine; 3University of California, Riverside
    Mantis shrimp are highly aggressive marine crustaceans that employ specialized raptorial appendages known as dactyls for hunting purposes. They also utilize an armor-like segment of their abdomen known as a telson for protection during ritualized fighting. Telsons routinely face high-energy impacts of up to 23 m/s with peak forces up to 1500 N while exhibiting no signs of damage. This study investigates the role of ridged geometries present on the telson and their ability to mitigate stresses observed under high-energy impact events. The study also extends this notion by incorporating such geometries into three-dimensional curved shell structures. Results show that such structures harness a design space where slight modifications of the ridged geometries allow for the control of parameters such as peak loads and dissipated energy without loss to structural stiffness.

9:00 AM  Invited
Bioinspired Design of Fracture Resistant Layer-by-Layer Composite Structure: Xinrui Niu1; 1 City University of Hong Kong
    Biological materials often have gradually changing mechanical properties, which may enhance their fracture resistance and other types of mechanical integrities. This talk will present our recent progress on structural design of layer-by-layer composite structures with gradually changing mechanical properties. The study combines materials fabrication and characterization, mechanical testing and computational simulation. The short-term goal is to produce fracture-resistant structures for the applications such as dental crown, large-screen smartphone, flexible electronics, and so on. The long-term goal is to establish a mechanistically based platform for the design of robust composite materials/structures.

9:30 AM  
Assessing the Role of Loading Direction on the Compressive Response and Deformation Mechanism in Bioinspired Multilayered Composites: Sashanka Akurati1; Justine Marin1; Bharath Gundrati1; Dipankar Ghosh1; 1Old Dominion University
    This work is motivated by the structural gradient observed in natural materials to understand the influence of the loading direction on the compressive response and deformation mechanism of bioinspired multilayered ceramic-polymer composites. Although this investigation is not on the development of multilayered composites with a structural gradient, the current results shed insights into the mechanical behavior and design of such materials. This work utilized ice-templated alumina-epoxy composites as a model material system. For compression along growth direction of ice crystals, materials exhibited either high strength with brittle-like failure or low strength with ductile-like failure. Away from growth direction, strength decreased significantly, and failure was ductile-type. SEM and X-ray tomography were employed to investigate the influence of layer orientation on the deformation mechanisms. Using the Tsai-Hill failure criterion, the role of competitive failure mechanisms on compressive response of composites was evaluated and upper and lower bounds of strength were estimated.

9:50 AM  Invited
Bamboo Fibre-reinforced Mycelium Composites for Sustainable Structures: Hortense Le Ferrand1; 1Nanyang Technological University
    Mycelium-bound composites are promising for sustainable packaging, insulation, fashion, architecture. They consist in exploiting a living fungus mycelium network to form a composite. To date, moulding is the main fabrication process of mycelium-bound composites, strongly limiting the design potential for complex shapes to widen the applications. However, extrusion is facile, low energy-cost, and could offer design freedom and structural properties. Here, we combine bamboo microfibres, chitosan, and mycelium from Ganoderma Lucidum into a mixture that is workable, extrudable and buildable. All those components are issued from agricultural waste, making the material sustainable. The resulting materials have low energy costs, are sustainable, and present mechanical properties promising for a range of applications. The extrusion method allows the investigation of complex structures for more optimal mycelium growth thanks to the design of 3D porous structures allowing spreading of the loads and high-density mycelium growth.