Image-Based Polygonal Lattices for Mechanical Modeling of Biological Materials: 2D Demonstrations

Abstract

Understanding the structure−property relationship of biological materials, such as bones, teeth, cells, and biofilms, is critical for diagnosing diseases and developing bioinspired materials and structures. The intrinsic multiphase heterogeneity with interfaces places great challenges for mechanical modeling. Here, we develop an image-based polygonal lattice model for simulating the mechanical deformation of biological materials with complicated shapes and interfaces. The proposed lattice model maintains the uniform meshes inside the homogeneous phases and restricts the irregular polygonal meshes near the boundaries or interfaces. This approach significantly simplifies the mesh generation from images of biological structures with complicated geometries. The conventional finite element simulations validate this polygonal lattice model. We further demonstrate that the image-based polygonal lattices generate meshes from images of composite structures with multiple inclusions and capture the nonlinear mechanical deformation. We conclude the paper by highlighting a few future research directions that will benefit from the functionalities of polygonal lattice modeling.

Special Issue on Engineering Bioinspired and Biological Materials

“…However, mechanical modeling of the multiphase heterogeneity inherent in biological interfaces poses significant difficulties. To address this challenge, Liu et al 10 created a polygonal lattice model constructed from images to simulate how biological materials with intricate forms and interactions deform mechanically. This lattice model preserves the regular polygonal meshes at the borders or interfaces while restricting the irregular polygonal meshes inside the homogeneous phases, thereby greatly simplifying mesh creation from photos of biological entities with complex geometries.…”

Fast nonlinear mechanical features decoupling to identify and predict asphalt-based composites

“…This inter-aggregate interaction establishes a contact network in which the stress waves can travel more efficiently according to the speed of sound in the aggregates, which is exactly 3 order of magnitude larger than that in the binder. On the contrary, in case of tension, the aggregates tend to separate apart, therefore the stress waves are preferably transmitted through the soft asphalt binder [69,70]. As Fig.…”