Distorting crack-front geometry for enhanced toughness by manipulating bioinspired heterogeneity.

ABSTRACT: Control of crack propagation is crucial to make tougher heterogeneous materials. As a crack interacts with material heterogeneities, its front distorts and adopts complex tortuous configurations. While the behavior of smooth cracks with straight fronts in homogeneous materials is well understood, the toughening by rough cracks with tortuous fronts in heterogeneous materials remains unsolved. Here we highlight a distorted crack-front geometric toughening mechanism by manipulating bioinspired anisotropic heterogeneities of microstructural orientations and component properties. We reveal theoretically and demonstrate experimentally that the local mixed-mode I + II + III fracture triggered by local anisotropic heterogeneities lead to a helical crack front in a representative heterogeneous syst

SUBMITTER: Wu K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11696636 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature