Structural Design Elements in Biological Materials: Application to Bioinspiration

By S. Naleway, M. Porter, J. McKittrick, M. Meyers. Advances in Materials, 2015

638 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Eight structural elements in biological materials are identified as the most common amongst a variety of animal taxa. These are proposed as a new paradigm in the field of biological materials science as they can serve as a toolbox for rationalizing the complex mechanical behavior of structural biological materials and for systematizing the development of bioinspired designs for structural applications. They are employed to improve the mechanical properties, namely strength, wear resistance, stiffness, flexibility, fracture toughness, and energy absorption of different biological materials for a variety of functions (e.g., body support, joint movement, impact protection, weight reduction). The structural elements identified are: fibrous, helical, gradient, layered, tubular, cellular, suture, and overlapping. For each of the structural design elements, critical design parameters are presented along with constitutive equations with a focus on mechanical properties. Additionally, example organisms from varying biological classes are presented for each case to display the wide variety of environments where each of these elements is present. Examples of current bioinspired materials are also introduced for each element.

Subfields: Biomaterials, Biomedical Engineering, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ce9d14e8f52fd4cf3686cf6f02ad7483b6e2a721

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Biomaterials

1. Zhefeng Zhang
2. Zengqian Liu
3. M. Meyers
4. R. Ritchie
5. Iwona Jasiuk
6. F. Barthelat
7. Markus J. Buehler

In Biomedical Engineering

1. M. Meyers
2. Zhefeng Zhang
3. Zengqian Liu
4. A. du Plessis
5. R. Ritchie
6. Iwona Jasiuk
7. I. Yadroitsava
8. I. Yadroitsev

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

1. M. Meyers
2. Zhefeng Zhang
3. R. Ritchie
4. Zengqian Liu

Citations in the corpus

• Functional gradients and heterogeneities in biological materials: Design principles, functions, and bioinspired applications (2017, background): “The widespread use of gradients provides Nature with a wealth of feasible approaches to optimize the specific functions of biological materials despite their fairly limited choice of components.”
• A review of impact resistant biological and bioinspired materials and structures (2020, background): “Theyare foundacross species andare due, inmany cases, to convergent evolution processes [17].”
• Beautiful and Functional: A Review of Biomimetic Design in Additive Manufacturing (2019, background): “Lastly, the microarchitecture of biological 38 structures, which can be categorized as one of eight forms: fibrous, helical, gradient, layered, tubular, 39 cellular, suture and overlapping [42], plays an important role in determining the mechanical 40 properties of biological materials.”