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A Study of Hierarchical Biological Composite Structures Via a Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulation Approach

Lei Gao

School of Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, P. R. China

E-mail Address: tj.leigao@gmail.com

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Guohua Nie

School of Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, P. R. China

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, and

Teng Zhang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse 13244, NY, USA

E-mail Address: tzhang48@syr.edu

Corresponding author.

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https://doi.org/10.1142/S1758825116500848Cited by:2 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

A coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) simulation approach based on a widely used fuse model is developed to study the mechanical behaviors of hierarchical brick and mortar bio-composites made from hard minerals and soft polymers. Massively parallel MD simulations are performed to investigate the toughness enhancement and the effect of stochastic variations in brick strength in representative bio-composites. Our simulations indicate that the hierarchical structure of bio-composites not only plays a key role in toughness optimization, but also reduces the sensitivity of the structure to biomineral imperfections. This work demonstrates a simple and efficient simulation platform for designing novel biomimetic materials.

Keywords:

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