Spider silk: super material or thin fibre?
This work challenges the popular view that silk has exceptional intrinsic mechanical properties of strength and toughness. All polymer fibres are shown to follow one fracture mechanics relationship between failure strength and the ratio of elastic modulus to fibre diameter. Predictive structure-prop...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2013
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| Summary: | This work challenges the popular view that silk has exceptional intrinsic mechanical properties of strength and toughness. All polymer fibres are shown to follow one fracture mechanics relationship between failure strength and the ratio of elastic modulus to fibre diameter. Predictive structure-property relations are derived for strength and fracture toughness, and small diameter plays a large part in silk properties. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim. |
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