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Crack deflection occurs by constrained microcracking in nacre

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Abstract

For decades, nacre has inspired researchers because of its sophisticated hierarchical structure and remarkable mechanical properties, especially its extreme fracture toughness compared with that of its predominant constituent, \(\hbox {CaCO}_{3}\), in the form of aragonite. Crack deflection has been extensively reported and regarded as the principal toughening mechanism for nacre. In this paper, our attention is focused on crack evolution in nacre under a quasi-static state. We use the notched three-point bending test of dehydrated nacre in situ in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to monitor the evolution of damage mechanisms ahead of the crack tip. The observations show that the crack deflection actually occurs by constrained microcracking. On the basis of our findings, a crack propagation model is proposed, which will contribute to uncovering the underlying mechanisms of nacre’s fracture toughness and its damage evolution. These investigations would be of great value to the design and synthesis of novel biomimetic materials.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 91216108, 11432014, 11672301, 11372318, and 11502273) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant XDB22040501).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LNM Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Jingru Song, Cuncai Fan, Hansong Ma & Lihong Liang

  2. Department of Mechanics, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Yueguang Wei

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  1. Jingru Song
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  2. Cuncai Fan
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  3. Hansong Ma
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  4. Lihong Liang
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Correspondence to Yueguang Wei.

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Song, J., Fan, C., Ma, H. et al. Crack deflection occurs by constrained microcracking in nacre. Acta Mech. Sin. 34, 143–150 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-017-0724-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-017-0724-1

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