Analysis of crack trapping in 3D printed bio-inspired structural interfaces

Specific features of biological materials, such as microstructure, heterogeneities or hybrid compositions, already inspired the fabrication of several architected materials. More recently, special emphasis has been placed on the development of damage tolerant interfaces by introducing tailored surface heterogeneities. However, thanks to the current developments in the area of additive manufacturing, the mating substrates can be now fashioned into complex shapes to confer the desired joint behavior. By taking inspiration from the base plate of the Balanus Amphitrite, we recently employed 3D printing to fabricate bio-inspired structural interfaces and adhesive bonded Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) fracture specimens. The results of DCB tests have shown a remarkable increase in the total dissipated energy with respect to baseline samples. In this work we supplement our previous study by performing finite element simulations in order to ascertain the variation of the driving force as a function of crack advance. The obtained results, which are analyzed in conjunction with high resolution imaging of the crack propagation process, allow to further elucidate the mechanics of debonding. It is shown that the sub-surface channels can modulate the driving force available for crack growth, introducing a crack trapping ability which depends on the specific geometry of the interfacial region.