A Nature-Inspired Solution for Enhanced Impact Resistance of Structures

High-velocity impact loads pose significant challenges due to their potential to generate dynamic responses in structures, which in turn can cause severe damage. This study investigates nature-inspired solutions to minimize damages resulting from high-velocity impact loads on structures. By analyzing the basic elements of several existing biological systems and their contribution toward the structural integrity of these systems, key potential characteristics that can be translated into impact-resisting structures have been identified. In this study, a solution that is inspired by the mantis shrimp arm has been developed; as such, a multi-layered structure was designed using metallic materials that use the mantis shrimp arm’s concept of elastic modulus gradient variation. In addition, a periodic variation of elastic modulus in the multi-layered model was also considered. These we carried out using theoretical and numerical analyses. Based on a theoretical analysis involving shock wave propagation, this system demonstrated the potential to reduce the magnitude of the stress waves during an impact-loading event. The numerical analysis of this system was carried out using the nonlinear finite element software Abaqus, where the impact of a metallic flyer at a known velocity on a target of the multi-layered structure was simulated. The magnitude of the incident stress wave of the final material in the target was obtained to evaluate the performance of this system. The results demonstrated that the proposed multi-layered system has the potential to reduce the magnitude of the incident stress waves in the system when compared to the monolithic system with no variation of the elastic modulus. Further comparisons of the graded and periodic variations of the elastic modulus have also been presented and discussed to highlight the applicability of the proposed system in real-world applications.