Biological Materials Science: Biological Materials Science I
Sponsored by: TMS Functional Materials Division, TMS: Biomaterials Committee
Program Organizers: Jing Du, Pennsylvania State University; David Restrepo, University of Texas at San Antonio; Steven Naleway, University of Utah; Ning Zhang, Baylor University; Ling Li, University of Pennsylvania
Monday 8:30 AM
March 20, 2023
Room: Sapphire 402
Location: Hilton
Session Chair: Steven Naleway, University of Utah; David Restrepo, University of Texas at San Antonio
8:30 AM Invited
The Mechanics of Living Organisms: Some Observations: Marc Meyers1; Tarah Sullivan1; Andrei Pissarenko1; Haocheng Quan2; Eduard Arzt2; 1University of California-San Diego; 2Leibniz Institute for New Materials
Living organisms are, for the most part, subjected to external tractions or internal stresses acting at the cellular, tissue, organ, and organ system levels. These play an important role in determining their hierarchical components, and influence evolution. Mechanics can reveal and quantify the nature of the relationships between internal and external constraints in one hand, and structural features, on the other. We illustrate some of these relationships for several organic systems studied by our group: pine cones, fish scales, avian bones and feathers, and mammal dermis. Mechanics is a powerful tool to analyze new and yet unexplored relationships. Research supported by the Air Force Office of Science and Technology (MURI) and the Humboldt Foundation.
9:00 AM
Hierarchical, Progressive Collapsibility in the Impact Resistant Jackfruit: Benjamin Lazarus1; Rachel Luu1; Victor Leung1; Matthew Wong1; Samuel Ruiz-Pérez2; Willams Barbosa3; Ryan Fancher1; Diego Carneiro3; Wendell Almeida Bezerra4; Marc Meyers1; Josiane Barbosa3; 1University of California San Diego; 2Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; 3SENAI CIMATEC; 4Instituto Militar de Engenharia (IME)
The jackfruit contains a hierarchy of features that aid in its impact resistance. As the largest edible fruit in the world which can fall from heights of up to 70 feet, this system needs to be able to withstand significant dynamic loads. In this study, we identify four macroscale layers which contain a hierarchy of collapsible features. By studying the composition of the fruit, we attach the chemical makeup of each layer to its mechanical behavior and evolutionary, material role. The structures observed in the jackfruit are then replicated using additive manufacturing and tested to show that these designs can be transferred to engineered materials.
9:20 AM
Bio-inspired 3-phase Composites for Improved Impact Resistance: Shahbaz Khan1; Ling Li1; 1Virginia Tech
Biological material systems, subject to the environment, have intelligently designed multi-layer structures that can act in a multifunctional manner by combining different properties. The Amazonian arapaima fish, for example, feature multilayer structure that evolves from highly mineralized scales to cross-laminated plywood structure. This helps the fish to avoid predatory perforation without compromising its flexibility. In this work, we fabricate and test bio-inspired 3-phase composites materials, with epoxy-embedded architected structure, functionally graduated from entirely ceramic layers to completely epoxy layers. The hard ceramic phase helps in resisting the localized force effects, while the epoxy phase provides confinement and stabilizes the crack growth. Further, to enhance the lateral tensile stiffness, the structure is backed with woven Kevlar fibers. We use the dimensional flexibility of additive manufacturing technique as a tool to geometrically design individual phases mimicking the biological structures with graded layers, each serving a purpose in increased impact resistance.
9:40 AM Invited
Structure-mechanics-performance of Fish-fins as Inspiration for Robotic Materials: Francois Barthelat1; Saurabh Das1; Florent Hannard2; 1University of Colorado Boulder; 2Université Catholique de Louvain
Fish fins do not contain muscles, yet fish can change the shape of their fins with high precision and speed, while producing large hydrodynamics forces without collapsing. Fins are stiffened by slender structures called “rays” made of two mineralized layers that sandwich a softer collagenous core. In this work we used a custom, multi-axis mechanical testing platform to characterize the morphing response and the flexural stiffness of individual rays from the rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. We found that the performance of natural rays requires unusual combinations of flexural and axial stiffness in the mineralized region, high contrast of stiffness between outer layer and core, geometrical stiffening in the core as well as strong gradients of properties along the ray. The structures and mechanisms of natural fin rays can inspire new designs for stiff, yet morphable robotic materials for a variety of engineering applications.
10:10 AM Break
10:30 AM
Protecto-flexible Bioinspired Design: Alex Ossa1; Susana Estrada1; Dwayne Arola2; 1Universidad Eafit; 2University of Washington
The design of protection systems against impacts and blasts involves a complex trade-off between weight, flexibility, and energy absorption, which has been difficult to achieve and optimize following common engineering design routes. Nature has solved the problem of protection against predatory threats by employing segmented natural armor composed of hard units (scales or osteoderms), bound together by flexible tissues (skin or muscles). Natural armors achieve high levels of protection with reduced weight and high flexibility. By using the main principles of construction present in the microstructure and hierarchical structure of fish scales and osteoderms we were able to design and manufacture a new generation of Protecto-Flexible materials able to achieve an excellent trade-off between the required characteristics.
10:50 AM
Prestressing Bioceramics: On the Structural Origins and Mechanical Significance of Residual Stresses in Sea Urchin Spines: Zhifei Deng1; Zian Jia1; Hyunchae Loh2; Admir Masic2; Emily Peterman3; Ling Li1; 1Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; 2Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 3Bowdoin College
Introducing compressive residual stress is an effective strategy to improve the mechanical performance of brittle materials such as ceramics and glass. Here we report a bioceramic system which exhibits a macroscopic compressive residual stress field in sea urchin spines (Heterocentrotus mamillatus). The spines cut along the axial direction close the cut opening immediately, indicating a compressive residual stress near the outer surface. Strain gauge measurements further confirmed strain release up to 0.13%, and the peak shifts from piezo-Raman measurements on the spine before and after release also revealed a distributed residual stress field, tension in the center vs. compression near the surface. In addition, structural analysis revealed that from the spine center to edge, the Mg concentration increases, the intracrystalline organics and ACC decrease, and calcite lattice parameters decrease. Nanoindentation measurements showed that the compressive residual stress on the spine surface enhances the indentation modulus, hardness, and crack resistance.
11:10 AM
Sclerites from the Gorgonian Octocoral, Lophogorgia Chilensis: A Biological Mechanotunable System Based on Granular Jamming: Chenhao Hu1; Ravi Tutika1; Zhifei Deng1; Zian Jia1; Liuni Chen1; Hongshun Chen1; Daniel Baum2; Xianghui Xiao3; Michael Bartlett1; James Weaver4; Ling Li1; 1Virginia Tech; 2Zuse Institute Berlin; 3Brookhaven National Laboratory; 4Harvard University
The colonial gorgonian octocorals are known for their highly flexible, yet mechanically tunable fan-and tree-like branching body plans. In these species, skeletal support is provided by a highly cross-linked proteinaceous axial skeleton, which is surrounded by a soft tissue matrix containing thousands of embedded mm-sized calcareous sclerites. Sensitive to external stimuli, gorgonians can rapidly expel water from their soft tissues to achieve a denser packing of their constituent sclerites, which can, in turn, increase colony stiffness. To investigate how the hierarchically constructed and jammable sclerites can achieve high-density packing and resist deformation at the assembly level, we characterized their morphology and organization using micro-computed tomography and conducted mechanical tests and discrete element simulations to evaluate the influence of particle geometry and surface asperities on their jamming performance. The results obtained from these studies are, in turn, providing new biologically inspired insights for the design of mechanically tunable materials and systems.