| Abstract Scope |
Many remarkable energy absorbent materials are found in nature including bones, teeth, hooves, and fish scales. These materials harness energy absorbing strategies, despite being composed of relatively weak constituents, through structural organization. One design strategy of interest is the tubule architecture. Tubules are organized porosity typically found along the primary loading direction. While the tubule architecture is known to absorb energy, the effects of the tubule size, porosity and the volume fraction of the mineral phase have not been fully understood. Herein, 3D printing is used to generate systematic tubule architecture composites with various sizes, degrees of porosity and volume fraction of the stiff phase. These architectures are mechanically tested under quasi-static compression, single-notch bending, and dynamic mechanical compression to investigate the energy absorbing and toughening mechanisms. |