Interfacial Biothermomechanics Of Material Interfaces in Tropocollagen Based Materials
Vikas Tomar (Purdue), Tao Qu (Purdue University)
Materials Design and Biomimetic Material Concepts
Tue 10:45 - 12:15
CIT 227
Hierarchical nanocomposite materials such as bone, dentine, nacre etc. are primarily composed of organic (polymeric polypeptide Tropocollagen (TC) chains) and inorganic (calcium hydroxyapatite (HAP) and calcium carbonate) phases. Interfacial interactions between the organic phase and the mineral phase as well as the structural effects arising due to the staggered arrangement, TC mutations, and varied HAP textures significantly affect the strength of such biomaterials. In addition, the above factors also influence the pathology of a biological tissue. The effect of such factors is intricately intertwined with the chemical environment of such materials. In the present investigation, different idealizations of TC-HAP and chitin based composite biomaterial system under tensile and compressive loadings are analyzed using explicit three dimensional (3-D) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to develop an understanding of these factors based on thermomechanical calculations. The analyses focus on understanding the correlations among factors such as the structural arrangement, the peak stress during deformation, the Young’s modulus, the peak interfacial strength, and the length scale of the localization of peak stress during deformation. Analyses are extended into quantum mechanical domain to elucidate role of electronic contributions. Results are discussed in terms of possibility of motivating bio-inspired materials and well as to explore possible disease mechanics issues.