Scaling Up Bone-Inspired Reinforcements: Tunable Structural Performance for Next-Generation Bioinspired Composite...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Mechanical Engineering
• Biomimetics

Background:

• Architectural design offers a method to modify the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced composites (FRCs) without changing their material composition.
• The concentric structure of osteons in cortical bone serves as inspiration for creating advanced composite materials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a framework for designing, modeling, and fabricating multilayered cylindrical osteon-like structures (OLS) with tunable mechanical properties.
• To investigate the influence of architectural design on the mechanical response and structural stability of OLS.

Main Methods:

• Development of a custom pull winding technique for continuous multilayer OLS fabrication.
• Experimental evaluation of OLS under uniaxial loading.
• Finite element simulations, including RVE-based models, with linear and nonlinear buckling analyses.
• Validation of the FE model against experimental data.

Main Results:

• Successful fabrication of millimeter-scale multilayer OLS using the developed pull winding technique.
• FE model accurately predicted OLS mechanical behavior, validated by experimental results.
• Demonstrated significant impact of stacking sequence and fiber orientation on OLS mechanical response.
• Identified optimal fiber orientation (parallel to the OLS axis) for enhanced axial stiffness and buckling performance.

Conclusions:

• The developed framework enables the creation of bio-inspired laminate systems with tunable properties.
• Fiber orientation is a critical factor in optimizing the mechanical performance and stability of OLS.
• The study provides a design space for OLS length selection, balancing material strength and buckling resistance.