3D-printed biomimetic hierarchical nacre architecture : fracture behavior and analysis

Abstract

Nacreous architecture has a good combination of toughnessand modulus,which can be mimicked at the micron to submicron level using 3D printingto resolve the demand in numerous applications such as automobile,aerospace, and protection equipment. The present study examines thefabrication of two nacre structures, a nacre columnar (NC) and a nacresheet (NS), and a pristine structure via fused deposition modeling(FDM) and explores their mechanically superior stacking structure,mechanism of failure, crack propagation, and energy dissipation. Theexamination reveals that the nacre structure has significant mechanicalproperties compared to a neat sample. Additionally, NS has 112.098J/m impact resistance (9.37% improvement), 803.415 MPa elastic modulus(11.23% improvement), and 1563 MPa flexural modulus (10.85% improvement),which are all higher than those of the NC arrangement.