The high-impact resistance bionic transparent composite material with octahedral structure

Abstract

The structure of natural biomaterials such as mollusk shells, conch shells, fish scales, and sea turtles, serves as a basis for inspiration in this study. We designed two composites with octahedral structures which can preferentially hinder the propagation of stress waves through the material. Mechanical properties and damage mechanisms of bionic octahedral structural composites under high-velocity impact were investigated employing experiments and finite element methods. The results show that under high-velocity impact, the crack damage of the traditional structure is divergent. In contrast, the damage mode of the bionic octahedral structure is progressive, and the damage is mainly concentrated in the central region. This improvement mainly arises from the interface of multiple unit blocks in the bionic octahedral structure, which effectively reduces the strength of tensile and shear stress waves on the surface of the composite glass plate. Therefore, the bionic octahedral structure can improve the impact resistance of composite materials significantly. This study provides valuable insights for the design of bionic structural composite materials with excellent impact resistance.