| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2024 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Biological Materials Science
|
| Presentation Title |
Evolution-Structure-Property Relationships of Damage Tolerant Horse Enamel |
| Author(s) |
Tomas Grejtak, Tyler C Hunt, Tomas F Babuska, Stephen M Kuhn-Hendricks, Mark A Norell, Gregory M Erickson, Brandon A Krick |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Tomas Grejtak |
| Abstract Scope |
Hard ceramic-like enamel of horse (Equus) is exposed to abrasive wear from silica-laden grasses and fracture promoting sediment inclusions. Curiously, horse’s enamel is able to prevent catastrophic failure from highly abrasive grinding that would debilitate feeding efficiency. In this work, a combination of tribological testing, multi-scale indentation, electron microscopy and wear modeling was utilized to explore the underlying structure-property relationships that enabled damage tolerance in the complex enamel of horse. Furthermore, the evolutionary modifications to the enamel that enabled grinding were studied in the fossil record. This study demonstrates that horse’s hierarchical enamel microstructure is responsible for its remarkable capacity to resist failure. The inner Modified Radial Enamel controls crack propagation through the organization of enamel prisms and interprismatic matrix. This crack steering ability results in increased fracture toughness and wear resistance. Collectively, this study revealed the importance of the hierarchical structure of the enamel on prevention of a failure. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Biomaterials, Mechanical Properties, Other |