Superior Damage Tolerance of Fish Skins
Name
materials-16-00953.pdf
Size
2.24 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
7856397a4ba860e68890a9a9cdeee85f
Author(s)
Zhang, Emily
Tung, Chi-Huan
Feng, Luyi
Zhou, Yu Ren
Date Issued
January 19, 2023
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Citation
Materials 16 (3): 953 (2023)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Skin is the largest organ of many animals. Its protective function against hostile environments and predatorial attack makes high mechanical strength a vital characteristic. Here, we measured the mechanical properties of bass fish skins and found that fish skins are highly ductile with a rupture strain of up to 30–40% and a rupture strength of 10–15 MPa. The fish skins exhibit a strain-stiffening behavior. Stretching can effectively eliminate the stress concentrations near the pre-existing holes and edge notches, suggesting that the skins are highly damage tolerant. Our measurement determined a flaw-insensitivity length that exceeds those of most engineering materials. The strain-stiffening and damage tolerance of fish skins are explained by an agent-based model of a collagen network in which the load-bearing collagen microfibers assembled from nanofibrils undergo straightening and reorientation upon stretching. Our study inspires the development of artificial skins that are thin, flexible, but highly fracture-resistant and widely applicable in soft robots.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16030953
