Mechanical design of the highly porous cuttlebone: A bioceramic hard buoyancy tank for cuttlefish.

ABSTRACT: Cuttlefish, a unique group of marine mollusks, produces an internal biomineralized shell, known as cuttlebone, which is an ultra-lightweight cellular structure (porosity, ∼93 vol%) used as the animal's hard buoyancy tank. Although cuttlebone is primarily composed of a brittle mineral, aragonite, the structure is highly damage tolerant and can withstand water pressure of about 20 atmospheres (atm) for the species Sepia officinalis Currently, our knowledge on the structural origins for cuttlebone's remarkable mechanical performance is limited. Combining quantitative three-dimensional (3D) structural characterization, four-dimensional (4D) mechanical analysis, digital image correlation, and parametric simulations, here we reveal that the characteristic chambered "wall-septa" microstruc

SUBMITTER: Yang T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7519314 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature