Amplifying Strength, Toughness, and Auxeticity via Wavy Sutural Tessellation in Plant Seedcoats

• DOI: 10.1002/adma.201800579
• Publication Date: 2018-07-19T03:08:52Z
• Authors: Chao Gao; Benjamin P. J. Ha...; Ling Li; James C. Weaver; Yaning Li
• Keywords: Waviness; Tessellation (computer graphics)

Abstract Protective armors are widespread in nature and often consist of periodic arrays tile‐like building blocks that articulate with each other through undulating interfaces. To investigate the mechanical consequences these wavy tessellations, especially instances where amplitude undulations is near scale constituent tiles as found seedcoats many plant species, an approach integrates parametric modeling finite element simulations direct testing on their 3D‐printed multi‐material structural analogues presented. Results from studies demonstrate tiled largely isotropic star‐like unit cells exhibit unusual combination properties including auxeticity mutually amplified strength toughness which can be systematically tuned by varying waviness sutural tessellation.