title: On the tear resistance of skin.
abstract: Tear resistance is of vital importance in the various functions of skin, especially protection from predatorial attack. Here, we mechanistically quantify the extreme tear resistance of skin and identify the underlying structural features, which lead to its sophisticated failure mechanisms. We explain why it is virtually impossible to propagate a tear in rabbit skin, chosen as a model material for the dermis of vertebrates. We express the deformation in terms of four mechanisms of collagen fibril activity in skin under tensile loading that virtually eliminate the possibility of tearing in pre-notched samples: fibril straightening, fibril reorientation towards the tensile direction, elastic stretching and interfibrillar sliding, all of which contribute to the redistribution of the stresses at the notch tip.
authors: Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA.
authors: Wen
authors: W
authors: Yang
authors: Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA.
authors: Vincent R
authors: VR
authors: Sherman
authors: Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors: Bernd
authors: B
authors: Gludovatz
authors: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors: Eric
authors: E
authors: Schaible
authors: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors: Polite
authors: P
authors: Stewart
authors: 1] Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA [2] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors: Robert O
authors: RO
authors: Ritchie
authors: 1] Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA [2] Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA [3] Department of NanoEngineering, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA.
authors: Marc A
authors: MA
authors: Meyers
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D020405:Dermis / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004548:Elasticity / Q000502:physiology; D024022:Fibrillar Collagens / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D011817:Rabbits; D012867:Skin / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013718:Tensile Strength / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D024022:Fibrillar Collagens