Extending fracture mechanics concepts to biological nanocomposite materials
Professor Huajian Gao
Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, Stuttgart, Germany
Nature has found, through billions years of natural evolution, many ingenious ways of producing materials
with superior mechanical properties. For example, bones, teeth, and shells are molecular composites of
proteins and biominerals with superior strength, hardness and fracture toughness. It is quite a marvel that
nature produces such tough materials out of protein constituents as soft as human skin and mineral
constituents as brittle as a classroom chalk. What are the secrets of nature? In this talk, I will discuss
some of the recent work in my research group at Stuttgart on modelling fracture process in biological
nanocomposites. The focus is on the understanding of length scales such as: Why is nanometer scale so
important to biological materials? What are the important scaling laws that are used by nature to produce
materials with superior strength? Can we learn from nature to produce biomimicking materials?
