Toughening Mechanism of Unidirectional Stretchable Composite

Composite materials have been long developed to improve the mechanical properties such as strength and toughness. Most composites are non-stretchable which hinders the applications in soft robotics. Recent papers have reported a new design of unidirectional soft composite with superior stretchabilit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in robotics and AI 2021-04, Vol.8, p.673307-673307
Main Authors: Jiang, Xiaochun, Wang, Zhengjin, Sun, Danqi, Lu, Tongqing, Wang, Tiejun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
interfacial debonding
large deformation
Robotics and AI
stress concentration
stretchable composite
toughness
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Summary:Composite materials have been long developed to improve the mechanical properties such as strength and toughness. Most composites are non-stretchable which hinders the applications in soft robotics. Recent papers have reported a new design of unidirectional soft composite with superior stretchability and toughness. This paper presents an analytical model to study the toughening mechanism of such composite. We use the Gent model to characterize the large deformation of the hard phase and soft phase of the composite. We analyze how the stress transfer between phases deconcentrates the stress at the crack tip and enhances the toughness. We identify two types of failure modes: rupture of hard phase and interfacial debonding. We calculate the average toughness of the composite with different physical and geometric parameters. The experimental results in literature agree with our theoretical predictions very well.
ISSN:2296-9144
2296-9144
DOI:10.3389/frobt.2021.673307