title: New insights into the Young's modulus of staggered biological composites.
abstract: This communication presents a simplified "mechanics-of-materials" approach for describing the mechanics of staggered composite architectures, such as those arising in a variety of biological tissues. This analysis calculates the effective modulus of the bio-composite and provides physical insights into its elastic behavior. Simplified expressions for high- and low-mineralized tissues are then proposed and the effects of the mineral thickness ratio and aspect ratio on the modulus are demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Benny
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bar-On
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. Electronic address: Daniel.Wagner@weizmann.ac.il.
authors.forename: H Daniel
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Wagner
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology*; D055119:Elastic Modulus / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D053761:Nanocomposites / Q000737:chemistry*