Structural effects in ‘brick-and-mortar’ architecture: Bio-inspired ceramic matrix composites developed through a new method

Abstract

Here, we present a bio-inspired ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) preparation method with highly controllable ceramic-brick size (length-to-thickness ratio, α, ranges from 5 to 40) based on a laser process combined with an adhesive bonding technology. Thanks to the toughening mechanisms such as crack deflection, bifurcation and bridging induced by ceramic-bricks and the strengthening mechanism controlled by ceramic-bridges, the failure displacement and the work of fracture (γwof) in CMCs have significantly improved by more than 15 and 3.5 times, respectively. On this basis, a novel CMCs, composed of layered ceramic and ‘brick-and-mortar’ ceramic, inspired by the compound structure of prismatic- and nacre-like layers in shell were prepared. Such a gradient design brought a improvement of 11.63 kJ/m2 in the γwof value, which was 2.6 times larger than the optimal improvement in pure ‘brick-and-mortar’ structural CMCs (4.45 kJ/m2). Compared with the experimental results, it was found that the strength and failure behavior of CMCs could be reasonably predicted with the help of the Pimenta and Begley models, while no appropriate model has been established as for the γwof prediction so far.