Seashells,commonly referred to as nature’s armors against predatory attacks,have been serving as the inspirations for designing strong and tough engineering materials.Previous studies on conch shells have been focuse...Seashells,commonly referred to as nature’s armors against predatory attacks,have been serving as the inspirations for designing strong and tough engineering materials.Previous studies on conch shells have been focused on the shell body parts.The conch spines which are evenly distributed at the tail of conch shell are generally accepted as the decoration,enabling conch shells as art pieces.Here we report a new finding that nature uses curved reinforcements,different from the straight ones in conch body parts,to construct conch spines which exhibit 30%increase in fracture strength compared to conch shell body parts.The curved lamellae not only endow conch spines with pyramid-shape but also add extra shielding to the shells.Under equilibrium state,the curved lamellar configuration withholds 3 times higher loading than the straight one.Our finding uncovered nature’s wisdom in constructing seashells and provides an additional design guideline for utilizing curved reinforcements to achieve multifunctionalities and superior mechanical prowess.展开更多
The microstructures of conch shell were observed with scanning electronic microscope （SEM）, and a kind of inclined-cross microstructure of aragonite sheets was found. The maximal pull-out force of the inclined-cros...The microstructures of conch shell were observed with scanning electronic microscope （SEM）, and a kind of inclined-cross microstructure of aragonite sheets was found. The maximal pull-out force of the inclined-cross microstructure was analyzed based on its representative model and compared with that of a conventional 0 °- structure. The experimental result indicates that the maximal pull-out force of the inclined-cross microstructure is markedly larger than that of the 0°- structure.展开更多
文摘Seashells,commonly referred to as nature’s armors against predatory attacks,have been serving as the inspirations for designing strong and tough engineering materials.Previous studies on conch shells have been focused on the shell body parts.The conch spines which are evenly distributed at the tail of conch shell are generally accepted as the decoration,enabling conch shells as art pieces.Here we report a new finding that nature uses curved reinforcements,different from the straight ones in conch body parts,to construct conch spines which exhibit 30%increase in fracture strength compared to conch shell body parts.The curved lamellae not only endow conch spines with pyramid-shape but also add extra shielding to the shells.Under equilibrium state,the curved lamellar configuration withholds 3 times higher loading than the straight one.Our finding uncovered nature’s wisdom in constructing seashells and provides an additional design guideline for utilizing curved reinforcements to achieve multifunctionalities and superior mechanical prowess.
文摘The microstructures of conch shell were observed with scanning electronic microscope （SEM）, and a kind of inclined-cross microstructure of aragonite sheets was found. The maximal pull-out force of the inclined-cross microstructure was analyzed based on its representative model and compared with that of a conventional 0 °- structure. The experimental result indicates that the maximal pull-out force of the inclined-cross microstructure is markedly larger than that of the 0°- structure.
