Composite Assembly Research Articles

Self-organizing motors divide active liquid droplets

The cytoskeleton is a collection of protein assemblies that dynamically impose spatial structure in cells and coordinate processes such as cell division and mechanical regulation. Biopolymer filaments, cross-linking proteins, and enzymatically active motor proteins collectively self-organize into various precise cytoskeletal assemblies critical for specific biological functions. An outstanding question is how the precise spatial organization arises from the component macromolecules. We develop a system to investigate simple physical mechanisms of self-organization in biological assemblies. Using a minimal set of purified proteins, we create droplets of cross-linked biopolymer filaments. Through the addition of enzymatically active motor proteins, we construct composite assemblies, evocative of cellular structures such as spindles, where the inherent anisotropy drives motor self-organization, droplet deformation, and division into two droplets. These results suggest that simple physical principles underlie self-organization in complex biological assemblies and inform bioinspired materials design.

Protobiotic Systems Chemistry Analyzed by Molecular Dynamics.

Systems chemistry has been a key component of origin of life research, invoking models of life’s inception based on evolving molecular networks. One such model is the graded autocatalysis replication domain (GARD) formalism embodied in a lipid world scenario, which offers rigorous computer simulation based on defined chemical kinetics equations. GARD suggests that the first pre-RNA life-like entities could have been homeostatically-growing assemblies of amphiphiles, undergoing compositional replication and mutations, as well as rudimentary selection and evolution. Recent progress in molecular dynamics has provided an experimental tool to study complex biological phenomena such as protein folding, ligand-receptor interactions, and micellar formation, growth, and fission. The detailed molecular definition of GARD and its inter-molecular catalytic interactions make it highly compatible with molecular dynamics analyses. We present a roadmap for simulating GARD’s kinetic and thermodynamic behavior using various molecular dynamics methodologies. We review different approaches for testing the validity of the GARD model by following micellar accretion and fission events and examining compositional changes over time. Near-future computational advances could provide empirical delineation for further system complexification, from simple compositional non-covalent assemblies towards more life-like protocellular entities with covalent chemistry that underlies metabolism and genetic encoding.

Contrasting patterns and drivers of soil fungal communities in subtropical deciduous and evergreen broadleaved forests.

Subtropical broadleaved forests play a crucial role in supporting terrestrial ecosystem functions, but little is known about their belowground soil fungal communities despite that they have central functions in C, N, and P cycles. This study investigated the structures and identified the drivers of soil fungal communities in subtropical deciduous and evergreen broadleaved forests, using high-throughput sequencing and FUNGuild for fungal identification and assignment to the trophic guild. Fungal richness was much higher in the deciduous than in the evergreen forest. Both forests were dominated by Ascomycota and Basidiomycota phyla, but saprophytic fungi were more abundant in the deciduous forest and ectomycorrhizal fungi predominated in the evergreen forest. Fungal communities had strong links to plant and soil properties. Specifically, plant diversity and litter biomass were the main aboveground drivers of fungal diversity and composition in the deciduous forest, while host effects were prominent in the evergreen forest. The belowground factors, i.e., soil pH, water content, and nutrients especially available P, were identified as the primary drivers of soil fungal communities in the broadleaved forests. Co-occurrence network analysis revealed assembly of fungal composition in broadleaved forest soils was non-random. The smaller modularity of the network in the deciduous forest reflects lower resistance to environment changes. Concluding, these results showed that plant community attributes, soil properties, and potential interactions among fungal functional guilds operate jointly on the divergence of soil fungal community assembly in the two broadleaved forest types.

Temporal shifts in the mycobiome structure and network architecture associated with a rat (Rattus norvegicus) deep partial-thickness cutaneous burn.

With a diverse physiological interface to colonize, mammalian skin is the first line of defense against pathogen invasion and harbors a consortium of microbes integral in maintenance of epithelial barrier function and disease prevention. While the dynamic roles of skin bacterial residents are expansively studied, contributions of fungal constituents, the mycobiome, are largely overlooked. As a result, their influence during skin injury, such as disruption of skin integrity in burn injury and impairment of host immune defense system, is not clearly delineated. Burn patients experience a high risk of developing hard-to-treat fungal infections in comparison to other hospitalized patients. To discern the changes in the mycobiome profile and network assembly during cutaneous burn-injury, a rat scald burn model was used to survey the mycobiome in healthy (n = 30) (sham-burned) and burned (n = 24) skin over an 11-day period. The healthy skin demonstrated inter-animal heterogeneity over time, while the burned skin mycobiome transitioned toward a temporally stabile community with declining inter-animal variation starting at day 3 post-burn injury. Driven primarily by a significant increase in relative abundance of Candida, fungal species richness and abundance of the burned skin decreased, especially in days 7 and 11 post-burn. The network architecture of rat skin mycobiome displayed community reorganization toward increased network fragility and decreased stability compared to the healthy rat skin fungal network. This study provides the first account of the dynamic diversity observed in the rat skin mycobiome composition, structure, and network assembly associated with postcutaneous burn injury.

Thermal Performance Evaluation of Common Exterior Residential Wall Types in Egypt

The demand for energy-efficient housing is on the rise in Egypt. The information about the individual materials used in the construction of typical residential wall assemblies are known in the literature. However, data from lab tests to validate the performance for whole composite walls are limited. Three typical wall types were constructed and tested utilizing a standard experimental evaluation procedure based on thermal convection loads. A research framework combining the validated thermal performance data from the experimental test and the simulated data was developed. The experimental tests were performed utilizing a state-of-the-art guarded hotbox apparatus and following the guidelines of the ASTM C1363-11 standard. The solar radiation load was taken into account in the calculations according to the standard, and the error estimation and uncertainty analysis for the experimental tests are reported. The results of the experimental testing are described and a recommendation of the best wall type is noted. The output of this research will help to initiate a material database of the thermal performance of typical residential wall types used in Egypt that have been validated in the lab. This will be useful for the building industry as a whole to understand the performance of the materials in composite assemblies and their impact on energy efficiency.

Fire experiments of cold-formed steel non-load-bearing composite assemblies lined with different boards

At present, fire-resistant boards have become the most common fire protection productions in cold-formed steel (CFS) structures. In this paper, a fire experimental investigation of 12 CFS composite assemblies is carried out and the effects of different boards and insulation material are discussed. For non-load-bearing CFS composite assemblies lined with only GP board on the fire side, significant flexural deflection of CFS frame towards the furnace and local buckling of steel web is observed, due to the thermal bowing and fall off of fire-side GP board. Compared to the GP board, the low-bulk-density calcium-silicate (CS) board is not prone to fall off during the fire exposure. Replacing the fire-side base-layer GP board with CS board generates an effective fire protection on the cavity and ambient-side of assemblies. Therefore, the buckling of steel frame becomes insignificant and the testing fire resistance time of insulation failure is extended by 9 min to 46 min. The thermal insulation performance of aluminum silicate wool is obviously superior to that of rock wool in fire. For the present assemblies using aluminum silicate wool as external insulation instead of rock wool, the fire resistance time of insulation failure is extended by 18 min. Meanwhile, the composite panel and autoclaved lightweight concrete (ALC) board display excellent thermal insulation performance. For the CFS assemblies using aluminum silicate wool as external insulation, GP and CS boards as fire-side composite panel and ALC board as ambient-side base-layer sheathing, the fire resistance time of insulation failure becomes more than 171 min.

Study on transient heat transfer at metal to dielectric interfaces in the temperature range between 3.5 K and 30 K

The thermal conductivity and diffusivity across a combination of metallic and insulating layers are important thermodynamic input parameters for cooling studies of composite materials or assemblies built out of layers of different electrical and thermal conductivity. The dynamic response of such thermal contacts across electrically insulating layers can be expressed in terms of a diffusivity-like value, which is giving insight on the interface thermal resistance. A two-stage cryocooler based test stand is used to measure the thermal conductance of samples. Variable base temperatures of the experimental platform at the cryocooler allow for steady-state and transient heat flux measurements up to 30 K. This paper describes the measurement methodology applied to such kind of non-uniform sample compositions, especially the frequency dependence of the diffusivity values is discussed.

Effect of Surface Pre-treatments on Bonding Performance of Zirconia Ceramic with Resin Cements

Purpose: To establish an effective bonding for zirconia, the aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of air-borne particle abrasion, Piranha acid etching and hot acid etching pre-treatments on bond strength of zirconia with self-adhesive resin cements (Panavia SA, TheraCem) and conventional adhesive resin cement (Panavia F2.0). Also, the effect of Silano-Pen treatment on the bond strength of zirconia to resin cements was evaluated.Materials and Methods: Eighteen zirconia blocks were cut, sintered and divided into three groups (n=6): air-borne particle abrasion, Piranha acid etching (3H2SO4:1H2O2), and hot acid etching (1HNO3:1HF). From each group, the bonding surfaces of three zirconia blocks were treated with Silano-Pen. Each zirconia block was bonded to its corresponding composite block utilizing either Panavia SA, TheraCem or Panavia F2.0. Each ceramic resin composite assembly was sectioned perpendicular to the bonding interface to obtain microbars of 1 mm2 thickness. A total of 180 microbars were subjected to 10000 thermal cycles between 5°C and 55°C with dowel time of 30 seconds. Each microbar was subjected to tensile force until de-bonding. The data was statistically analyzed.Results: The hot acid showed the highest µTBS (21.96±5.86 MPa) followed by air-borne particle abrasion (16.40±6.23 MPa) and the lowest was Piranha (15.04±7.12 MPa). With Panavia SA, there was significant difference (p=.035) between µTBS with Silano-Pen in air-borne particle abrasion and Piranha groups, also there was significant difference (p=.004) between Piranha and hot acid groups. With TheraCem, there was significant difference (p=.008) between µTBS with Silano-Pen in air-borne particle abrasion and Piranha groups, also there was significant difference (p=.003) between air-borne particle abrasion and hot acid groups. The interaction between cement and Silano-Pen was insignificant (p=.067).Conclusions: Pre-treatment method and type of adhesive resin cement influences the effectiveness of bonding of zirconia. The hot acid etching recorded the highest bond strength, whereas the lowest was recorded with Piranha etching. Silano-Pen treatment after hot acid etching improved the bonding of zirconia to adhesive resin cement. The self-adhesive MDP-containing resin cement (Panavia SA) enhanced the effectiveness of the bond strength with zirconia.

Scale Effects in Orthotropic Composite Assemblies as Micropolar Continua: A Comparison between Weak- and Strong-Form Finite Element Solutions.

The aim of the present work was to investigate the mechanical behavior of orthotropic composites, such as masonry assemblies, subjected to localized loads described as micropolar materials. Micropolar models are known to be effective in modeling the actual behavior of microstructured solids in the presence of localized loads or geometrical discontinuities. This is due to the introduction of an additional degree of freedom (the micro-rotation) in the kinematic model, if compared to the classical continuum and the related strain and stress measures. In particular, it was shown in the literature that brick/block masonry can be satisfactorily modeled as a micropolar continuum, and here it is assumed as a reference orthotropic composite material. The in-plane elastic response of panels made of orthotropic arrangements of bricks of different sizes is analyzed herein. Numerical simulations are provided by comparing weak and strong finite element formulations. The scale effect is investigated, as well as the significant role played by the relative rotation, which is a peculiar strain measure of micropolar continua related to the non-symmetry of strain and work-conjugated stress. In particular, the anisotropic effects accounting for the micropolar moduli, related to the variation of microstructure internal sizes, are highlighted.

Co-extrusion of Zircaloy-2 and Zr-Sn alloy for double clad tube manufacturing: Numerical simulation and experimental validation

Zircaloy-2 cladding in boiling water nuclear reactors is prone to brittle failure due to pellet-cladding interaction (PCI). The simultaneous effects of stress corrosion cracking and cladding stresses are the main failure mechanisms which limit the life of fuel clad tubes. Zircaloy-2 clad tube, with the inner surface lined with dilute Zr-0.3 wt %Sn layer is a potential and effective protection against PCI failure. Due to the difference in flow behavior of two dissimilar alloys (softer in the core and harder in the sleeve), the manufacturing of double-clad tubes requires proper selection of process parameters. In the present study, manufacturing process has been developed at actual scale to produce metallurgically bonded Zr-Sn lined Zr-2 double clad. Further, this paper systematically brings out the billet assembly methodology using copper jacketing and vacuum degassing. The constraints present in defect-free metallurgical bonding have been overcome by a series of industrial co-extrusion trials of Zr-Sn and Zr-2 composite billet assembly suggested by FEM-based simulation. The co-extrusion process parameters such as strain rate (ram speed), temperature and co-extrusion ratio were suitably optimized using FEM-based analysis of co-extrusion. The metallurgical bond integrity, microstructure evolution and liner thickness variation were characterized by FEG-SEM. The interface between Zr-2 and Zr-Sn was found to be continuous.

On sequential ultrasonic spot welding as an alternative to mechanical fastening in thermoplastic composite assemblies: A study on single-column multi-row single-lap shear joints

In previous work, single-spot ultrasonically welded joints were found to feature similar load carrying capability in shear but significantly low capability in peel as joints with a representative single-mechanical fastener. This leads to questioning welding as an appropriate solution for the commonly-used single-lap joint configuration. The present paper investigates the mechanical performance of spot welded single-lap joints in thermoplastic composites in comparison to their mechanically fastened counterparts. Single-row joints, double-row joints with varying inter-row distance and multi-row joints with varying number of rows were investigated in this study. The results showed that, owing to higher joint stiffness and hence lower secondary bending and peel stresses, the load carrying capability of the spot welded joints was comparable to that of the mechanically fastened joints in all considered cases. Likewise, the effects of increasing the inter-row distance and of increasing the number of rows were similar for both types of the joints.

In-situ green assembly of spherical Mn-based metal-organic composites by ion exchange for efficient electrochemical oxidation of organic pollutant.

In this study, we develop a facile ion exchange strategy for in-situ assembly of novel spherical metal-organic composites on a large scale. The functional groups (-NH2, -COOH and -SO3H) on chelating and exchange resins had significant effects on improving uniform distribution of metallic sites and metal-support interaction. Without any addition of H2O2, Mn-based metal-organic composites realized the recovery of waste metallic ions and exhibited high activity for methylene blue (MB) electro-Fenton degradation (97.8% decoloration and 54.7% TOC removal) within 150 min under low current density (7.53 mA·cm-2) and 3.0 g·L-1 catalyst dosage. Analyses of performance on different active sites (FeII, MnII, CoII, CeIII and CuII) and supports clearly indicated that synergetic effect of MnII and organic supports played crucial roles in electrochemical oxidation. Kinetic rate constant of 0.037 min-1 and turn over frequency of 0.23 h-1 were much better than those of inorganic supported catalysts, which were attributed to intramolecular electron transfer greatly accelerating MnII/MnIII autocatalytic cycle. Meanwhile, possible degradation pathway of MB was proposed by analysis of oxidative intermediate products. Benefiting from excellent properties and millimeter-level size structure, metal-organic composites can be applied in wide pH range of 2.0-9.0 and easily separated in the industrial application.

A Fatty Acid Induces the Functional Assembly of a Channel Protein into Phospholipid Vesicles

The release of encapsulated cargo is an important step towards the design of intelligent drug delivery systems or vesicle-based bioreactors. Controlling the integration of pore forming channels into phospholipid vesicle membranes provides a route to initiate content release that could be coupled to gene-expression systems. Here, we present the design of phospholipid vesicles that release cargo upon the temporally controlled assembly of pore-forming channels. Our approach was to design a synthetic vesicle in which membrane composition could be remotely changed to enable the assembly of a pore-forming channel protein, α-hemolysin (αHL), and trigger content release. We first observed that a membrane lacking a sufficient concentration of cholesterol is not compatible with channel assembly and we hypothesized that increasing membrane fluidity, through the addition of oleic acid (OA) micelles could promote channel assembly. Using a dye release assay, we first confirmed that increasing OA content in phospholipid membranes leads to pore assembly. Next, we demonstrated that remote addition of OA micelles to inactive membranes results in fatty acid membrane uptake and channel assembly. We then showed that our system provides a route to control the integration of αHL into vesicle membranes when the channel protein is produced through a cell-free expression system. We remotely added OA micelles to vesicles present in a cell-free expression system where the amount of protein expressed is difficult to control. OA addition led to functional pore assembly and dye release. We ultimately demonstrate a new way to utilize remote changes in membrane composition to control αHL assembly and content release. Our study contributes to the design of vesicle-based technologies and also reveals new insight into the relationship between membrane composition and cholesterol-dependent cytolysin channel assembly.

Electrostatically Directed Assembly of Nanostructured Composites for Enhanced Photocatalysis

AbstractIt is well established that the activity of photocatalysts can be improved by deposition of redox catalysts, which can effectively extract the photogenerated charge carriers, enhance the rate of interfacial reactions, and thus suppress undesired recombination processes. For optimum performance, a high degree of control over the loading, size, and surface catalytic properties of redox catalyst particles is desirable. Herein, a novel, highly controllable, and versatile method for preparation of TiO2 catalyst composites is reported. It starts with the generation of “naked” (ligand‐free) nanoparticles of CuOx or FeOx by pulsed laser ablation of metal oxide targets in water. In the next step, a nearly quantitative colloidal deposition of CuOx and FeOx nanoparticles onto anatase TiO2 substrate is achieved by adjusting the pH in order to establish electrostatic attraction between the colloids and the substrate. The resulting TiO2–CuOx and TiO2–FeOx assemblies with optimum catalyst amount (≈0.5 wt%) exhibit photocatalytic rates in degradation of 2,4‐dichlorophenoxyacetic acid enhanced by a factor of ≈1.5 as compared to pristine TiO2 under simulated solar irradiation. The electrostatically directed assembly of TiO2 with ligand‐free catalyst nanoparticles generated by pulsed laser ablation is thus demonstrated as a viable tool for preparation of composites with enhanced photocatalytic performance.

Durability of composite assemblies under extreme conditions: Thermomechanical damage prediction of a double-lap bonded composite assembly subject to impact and high temperature

The objective of this study is to simulate and predict the thermomechanical damage of composite material assemblies subjected to impact load while in a high temperature environment. Three-dimensional models were developed for a glass-fiber reinforced vinyl ester double-lap bonded composite assembly subject to combined mechanical and high thermal loads. Both thermal and mechanical models were implemented in the finite element analysis software Abaqus, using sequential heat transfer and dynamic implicit simulations. The thermal model is customized to properly simulate the thermal behavior of composites and generate accurate results while the mechanical model uses the existing functions of Abaqus. For a double-lap composite assembly, thermomechanical failure is predicted in the adhesive zone, at the adherent/adhesive interface, as the adhesive deteriorates at the early stages of exposure. The adherent also deteriorates but at a slower rate. Furthermore, stress concentration is observed at the edges of the stress distribution along the adhesive length, while the average stress along the length decreases gradually as a function of the fire exposure time. The conducted simulations made it possible to predict the stress distribution field variation as a function of time in the double-lap bonded assembly under a combined thermal-impact load. This would serve as a valuable tool for composite structure designers in sizing bonded composite assemblies for their structural projects, as the specifications for certain structures impose a time of evacuation of the structure during a shock and triggering of a fire.

Photocatalytic dye degradation and biological activities of the Fe2O3/Cu2O nanocomposite.

The present study reports the synthesis of the Fe2O3/Cu2O nanocomposite via a facile hydrothermal route. The products were characterized using X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) techniques. The composition, morphology and structural features of the nanoparticles were found to be size-dependent due to the temperature response in the particular time log during hydrothermal synthesis. HR-TEM confirmed the formation of hexagonal rod-shaped bare Cu2O, rhombohedral-shaped Fe2O3 and composite assembly. Rhodamine-B (RB) and Janus green (JG) were chosen as model dyes for the degradation studies. Photocatalytic degradation of the dyes was deliberated by altering the catalyst and dye concentrations. The results showed that the Rhodamine-B (RB) and Janus green (JG) dyes were degraded within a short time span. The synthesized materials were found to be highly stable in the visible light-driven degradation of the dyes; showed antibacterial activity against E. coli, P. aeruginosa, Staph. aureus and B. subtilis; and exhibited less toxicity against the Musmusculus skin melanoma cells (B16-F10). The fusion of these advantages paves the way for further applications in energy conversion, biological applications as well as in environmental remediation.

Analytical and numerical investigation on inter laminar stress pattern in FRP Composites

Enhance the properties of fiber-matrix interface by providing fiber coating is most important aspect in Fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites. To design polymer matrix composites with improved properties such as impact resistance, fatigue resistance, fracture toughness, endurance to viable greater performance and economic production for future applications like space structures, automotive components and other structural applications. The role of the coating material used as a bonding agent/interface layer for matrix and fiber has been studied to understand and make several useful conclusions on stress distribution pattern in various phases of cylindrical composite assembly under hygrothermal loading conditions which are prevailed especially in aerospace structures. Number of authors have reported the stress analysis of FRP Composites under hygrothermal conditions in the literature. Most of these predictions focused for metal matrix composites and a few are on three phase model on analytical analysis. This report involves analysis of cylindrical unidirectional composite assembly using four phase model exposed under hygrothermal conditions of loading using numerical technique as well as analytical approach. All the tabulations comparing the analytical and numerical predictions are made with suitable illustrations and graph representations indicating the effects of higher stresses, the impact of moisture penetration and hygrothermal loading etc.,

Intelligent multiple-liquid evaporation power generation platform using distinctive Jaboticaba-like carbon nanosphere@TiO2 nanowires

We prepared 0D/1D composite assembly by simulating the Jaboticaba tree and applied it in a light-control liquid evaporation power generation device.

Change in fish functional diversity and assembly rules in the course of tidal marsh restoration.

Functional trait theory provides a mechanistic framework to understand change in community composition and community assembly through time and space. Despite this, trait-based approaches have seldom been used in ecological restoration. Succession theory predicts that habitat complexity and resource availability will increase with restoration time, leading to increased functional dissimilarity among coexisting species. However, in the case of tidal marsh restoration, it is not clear whether reestablishing the harsh abiotic conditions typical of estuaries will initiate successional trajectories. We investigated monotonic changes in the functional structure of fish communities and shifts in assembly mechanisms, with tidal restoration time. A five-level gradient of ‘intertidal habitat naturalness’ was constructed from a set of artificialized (dyked), restored (with different ages) and natural intertidal sites, and used as a surrogate for restoration progress. The fish ecophases were described using ten functional traits related to food acquisition and swimming ability. The trends in six functional dimensions (identity, richness, evenness, dispersion, originality and specialization) were investigated along the naturalness gradient. Consistenly with succession theory, functional specialization, dispersion and, less markedly, richness increased with intertidal naturalness meaning that restored and natural intertidal habitats supplied fish with specific foraging and dwelling conditions absent from dyked marshes. Community assembly patterns varied with respect to traits and differed at both ends of the naturalness gradient. Dyked marshes were more affected by trait convergence possibly due to limiting resources. Environmental filtering was detected all along the naturalness gradient although the traits affected varied depending on the naturalness level of habitats. Environmental filtering tended to decrease in restored and natural intertidal habitats. Increased naturalness restored the attractivity of benthic habitats as feeding or settling grounds, promoted shelter-seeking vs. free-swimming strategists and favoured ecophases with carnivorous diets, feeding on microinvertebrates and benthic low-mobility macroinvertebrates. Approaches based on functional trait diversity have the potential to question and refine the theoretical frame of ecological restoration and to assist managers in their efforts to restore tidal wetlands.

Morphological and textural evolution of the prismatic ultrastructure in mollusc shells: A comparative study of Pinnidae species

Molluscan shells, exhibiting a variety of complex three-dimensional architectures, are an exemplar model system to study biogenic mineral formation by living organisms. Recent studies have demonstrated that the deposition process of some shell ultrastructures can be described using classical analytical models borrowed from materials physics, which were developed to predict the structural evolution of man-made and geological polycrystalline composite assemblies. In the current study, we use this newly developed capacity to quantitatively describe the morphogenesis of the prismatic ultrastructure in three shells from the bivalve family Pinnidae towards establishing a correlation between structure, texture, growth kinetics, topology and phylogeny of the species. Using data collected by electron microscopy, synchrotron-based microtomography, electron backscatter diffraction analysis (EBSD) and X-ray diffraction we demonstrate that the prismatic ultrastructures in Pinnidae are formed following either ideal or triple-junction-controlled kinetics, which are shown to be closely linked to the morphological and topological characteristics, as well as crystallographic texture of these biocomposites. The experimental and analytical framework presented in this comparative study can serve as an additional tool for classifying molluscan shell ultrastructures on the levels of structural and textural morphogenesis. Statement of SignificanceThe ability to quantitatively describe the structural evolution of the prismatic architecture in mollusc shells is used for the first time to derive and compare between analytical parameters that define the growth kinetics and morphological and topological evolution during the growth of three shells from the family Pinnidae from two different genera. Furthermore, these parameters are linked to the evolution of crystallographic texture in the studied architectures. The developed experimental and analytical framework not only enables us to quantitatively describe species-specific growth mechanisms but also suggests a direct correlation between the evolution of morphology and texture.