Tension Mechanical Behavior of 3D Printed Composite Materials Inspired by Nacre

Nacre inspired composite materials with different assembly modes were fabricated by photocurable 3D printing. The composite materials consist of two kinds of matrix materials. The tension mechanical properties, fracture and energy dissipation mechanism were analyzed by quasi-static tensile tests combined with scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results show that, keeping the length of the cell constant, the strength of nacre inspired composite materials increase linearly, while the fracture strain decreases linearly with the increasing of in-plane assembly angle. The fracture strain decreases linearly with the increasing of out-plane assembly angle. When the out-plane assembly angle is less than 45°, the strength of nacre inspired composite materials increases linearly with increasing such angle, but it tends to be stable when such angle exceeds 45°. The strength of the material reaches the maximum value when the out-plane assembly angle is 45°. Most of the tension energy is dissipated by pull-out of the hard materials, generation, propagation and combination of micro-cracks at the soft/hard interface and the crack deflection in the propagation process.