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Procedia Structural
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Procedia200
(2016) 042–049
(2016) 000–000
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21st European Conference on Fracture, ECF21, 20-24 June 2016, Catania, Italy

Fracture Mechanics in Biology and Medicine

XV Portuguese Conference on Fracture, PCF 2016, 10-12 February 2016, Paço de Arcos, Portugal
David Taylor
Thermo-mechanical modeling of a high pressure turbine blade of an
Trinity Centre for Bioengineering, Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
airplane gas turbine engine
P. Brandãoa, V. Infanteb, A.M. Deusc*
Abstract
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa,
Many b
biological materials have load-bearing functions: Portugal examples include bone, cartilage, wood, insect cuticle and
IDMEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa,
eggshell. These materials have evolved into structures Portugal such as skeletal parts, wings, plant stems and shells. This
paper
c presents
CeFEMA, examples
Department of research
of Mechanical investigating
Engineering, failureTécnico,
Instituto Superior at bothUniversidade
the material levelAv.(where
de Lisboa, Rovisco crack
Pais, 1,initiation and
1049-001 Lisboa,
propagation is a common fracture mechanism) and the structural Portugal level, where competing failure mechanisms exist
such as buckling, splitting and fatigue.
Abstract
The study of these fracture problems from nature is interesting and rewarding of itself, to increase our knowledge of
the world around us. But it also has two important practical applications. Firstly, new materials and structures can be
During their operation, modern aircraft engine components are subjected to increasingly demanding operating conditions,
developed
especially by
the mimicking
high pressureNature’s solutions.
turbine (HPT) blades.One
Suchexample is cause
conditions the development of toughdifferent
these parts to undergo materials arising
types from the
of time-dependent
study of nacre,
degradation, conch
one shells
of which and other
is creep. natural
A model usingmaterials
the finite based
elementonmethod
calcium carbonate.
(FEM) These materials
was developed, in order to have
be able achieved
to predict
increases
the creepinbehaviour
fracture toughness of more
of HPT blades. Flightthan
dataanrecords
order (FDR)
of magnitude by theaircraft,
for a specific use of provided
tougheningby amicromechanisms.
commercial aviation
Secondly,
company, improved
were used medical
to obtaintreatments
thermal andand diagnostic
mechanical dataprocedures arise from
for three different flightthe studyInoforder
cycles. bonetoand softthetissues
create in
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contributing to the understanding
the FEM analysis, a HPT blade scrapand prevention
was scanned,ofand stress fractures,composition
its chemical osteoarthritis
andand otherproperties
material debilitating were
obtained. The data that was gathered was fed into the FEM model and different simulations were run, first with a simplified 3D
conditions.
rectangular block shape, in order to better establish the model, and then with the real 3D mesh obtained from the blade scrap. The
overall
There is expected behaviour
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here forofthose
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model can be useful in the goal of predicting turbine blade life, given a set of FDR data.
apply the lessons learnt from engineering materials, to biological materials, and vice versa.
© 2016©The
Copyright Authors.
2016 Published
The Authors. by Elsevier
Published B.V.
by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of PCF 2016.
Peer-reviewunder
Peer-review under responsibility
responsibility of Scientific
of the the Scientific Committee
Committee of ECF21.
of ECF21.
Keywords: High Pressure Turbine Blade; Creep; Finite Element Method; 3D Model; Simulation.
Keywords: Fracture mechanics; biology; medicine; toughness; eggshell; cuticle; buckling; biomimetics

2452-3216 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review underauthor.
* Corresponding responsibility
Tel.: +351of the Scientific Committee of ECF21.
218419991.
E-mail address: [email protected]

2452-3216 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of PCF 2016.
Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of ECF21.
10.1016/j.prostr.2016.06.006
 David Taylor / Procedia Structural Integrity 2 (2016) 042–049 43
2 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2016) 000–000

1. Introduction

Fracture mechanics is a relatively young science: we are still working to understand concepts such as the nature
of toughness, the role of microstructure in determining toughness, and the interaction of failure modes in structures,
such as cracking, yielding and buckling. In our work we can take inspiration from Nature, where we find many
examples of toughening mechanisms operating at different length scales and the evolution of structures with good –
in some cases optimal – strength to weight ratios, equipped to resist several competing failure mechanisms. In this
paper I describe some of the recent work carried out in my laboratory. Our aim is to study as wide a variety of
natural, biological materials as possible, applying the engineering techniques of failure analysis, fracture mechanics
and structural integrity to help understand how these materials fulfill their functions in many different types of
animals and plants. For illustration purposes I will focus on three examples. The first example is concerned with the
fracture toughness of eggshell, the development of a novel method to measure this property and its value discussed
in the context of other calcium carbonate materials in nature which display different toughness values as a result of
various toughening mechanisms at the microstructural level. The second example is concerned with crack
propagation in the skeletons of animals and the ability of living systems to detect and repair damage. The third
example considers a leg segment – the tibia of an insect - as an example of an optimized structure taking account of
two competing failure modes.

2. Fracture toughness and toughening mechanisms in nature: eggshell and related materials

2.1. Background

It is immediately evident to anyone with understanding of the concept of toughness that the shells of eggs are
made from a very brittle material. But how brittle exactly? Surprisingly, there have been very few previous
publications on the measurement of fracture toughness (Kc or Gc) in eggshell, and all of these previous studies have
resulted in incorrect values. Mabe et al (2003) reported values of Kc for typical hen’s eggs of the order of
11MPa√m. This value was arrived at by compressing whole eggs between parallel metal platens until failure
occurred: a formula was quoted in the paper, expressing Kc in terms of the failure load and egg dimensions. As far
as I can discover, there is no derivation of this formula in any published paper. In principle it should be possible to
deduce toughness from this type of test, because failure occurs by the propagation of cracks which initiate at the
contact points, so the problem is somewhat similar to that of the cracking of a brittle material during an indentation
test. Macleod et al (2006) developed the mechanics of this phenomenon in considerable detail, though they stopped
short of actually estimating toughness by this approach.
Anyone with a knowledge of the fracture toughness of materials will immediately realise that the above value of
11MPa√m is much too high to be correct. Eggshell is a ceramic material consisting of calcium carbonate crystals
plus a small amount of organic material (various natural polymers). There are almost no ceramic materials with Kc
values greater than 10MPa√m. Furthermore, a simple calculation based on knowledge of the tensile strength of
eggshell would deduce that, given this value of Kc, the critical crack length would be larger than the size of an egg,
implying that eggs will never break by cracking. What is even more worrying is that the work of Mabe et al has
been duplicated by other workers: Xiao et al (2014) used the same approach, with the same equation (though
slightly misquoted in the paper) and obtained similar results, with an average of 12.6MPa√m.
The only other paper which I could find on this subject was by Gosler et al (2011) who measured Gc in the eggs
of the Great Tit by measuring the energy to cut samples using a scissors. Their results were very varied (0.5-
17kJ/m2): when converted to Kc these give values of the same order of magnitude as above. So we can conclude
that, up to now, there have been no reliable measurements made of the fracture toughness of eggshell. This is really
remarkable considering the importance of eggs, and the fact that small cracks formed during their handling and
transport are responsible for considerable wastage of the product and also give rise to health risks.
44 David Taylor / Procedia Structural Integrity 2 (2016) 042–049
Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2016) 000–000 3

2.2. A novel approach to toughness measurement

To fill this gap, we devised a novel way to measure fracture toughness (Taylor et al 2016). The test rig is
illustrated in figure 1. It is based on the principle that if a thin walled hollow sphere is compressed along its poles, a
very simple state of stress arises at locations remote from the loading points. Bending is prevented, leaving a biaxial
membrane stress consisting of a compressive stress normal to an equal and opposite tensile stress. It is the tensile
stress, which acts in the circumferential direction around the equator of the sphere, which is of interest here. At the
equator this stress has a magnitude given by (for an applied force F, sphere radius b and thickness t):

F
 (1)
2bt
Our method involves placing a notch in this region, as shown in figure 1, such that the above tensile stress causes
brittle fracture from the notch. To prevent failure occurring near the loading points we used hemispherical cups and
layers of foam to distribute the applied force. We tested notches with different root radii and extrapolated the results
to zero root radius to estimate the effect of a sharp crack: root radii less than about 0.1mm gave results very similar
to the sharp crack estimate.

Fig.1. Schematic illustration of the test rig (on the left) and the biaxial stress state near the notch (on the right)

2.3. Eggshell toughness results and their significance

Using this approach we obtained a value for the fracture toughness Kc of 0.3MPa√m. It is interesting to discuss
this value in the context of the values already measured for related natural materials. The mineral which makes up
the great majority of eggshell is CaCO3 in the calcite form. Geological mineral calcite has a toughness of about 0.2
MPa√m. Many organisms, especially shellfish of various kinds, have shells made from calcite, or the related form
aragonite. Examples are mussels, conch shells and nacre, which is the material found in oysters and often called
“mother of pearl”. These materials have fracture toughness values which are an order of magnitude higher, in the
range 3-5 MPa√m. All of these biological forms, including eggshell, have essentially the same composition, with
 David Taylor / Procedia Structural Integrity 2 (2016) 042–049 45
4 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2016) 000–000

just a few percent of organic material, so how does this large variation in toughness come about? Recent research
has shown that several toughening mechanisms operate as a result of structure at a scale of the order of microns and,
in some cases, even smaller (Currey et al 2001, Barthelat et al 2007). Nacre, for example, has a brick-like structure
in which individual ceramic units are separated by very thin layers of organic polymer. This creates a lot of weak
interfaces which delaminate ahead of the main crack, using up energy, and also cause extensive crack deflection, as
shown in figure 2. Other toughening mechanisms which have been identified include crack deflection at twin
boundaries within calcium carbonate crystals in the conch shell. By contrast, our work showed that these
mechanisms are not active in eggshell. As figure 2 shows, cracks in this material are very straight, showing little
deflection or branching, Examination of fracture surfaces showed large facets made up of multiple individual
cleavage planes on the micron scale, mostly having low angle relationships to each other and therefore not inducing
crack deflection.
This explains why the toughness of eggshell is so low, only slightly higher than that of pure mineral calcite. And
for the chicken, this is a very good thing. The egg needs to be relatively stiff to prevent deformation when the
mother bird is sitting on the egg, but then during hatching the young chick needs to be able to break the shell, which
it does with its beak, making a small hole and enlarging it, causing failure by brittle fracture. So the correct
specification for this material is one which has a high Young’s modulus and a low fracture toughness, and indeed it
turns out that eggshell has one of the highest ratios of E/Kc of any material, natural or manmade.

50m

Fig.2. The photograph on the left shows crack propagation in nacre (Currey et al 2001); the crack path is illustrated schematically in the inset.
The photograph on the right shows crack propagation in eggshell, from our work (Taylor et al 2016).

2.4. Consequences for medicine and engineering

This kind of work has also been done for another material system, and one which is of more immediate concern
to human beings: the hydroxyapatite/collagen system which is present in various mammalian tissues such as bone,
tooth enamel and dentin, as well as the antlers of deer. Previous work by ourselves and others (e.g. Nalla et al 2004)
has shown that, just as in the calcium carbonate based system described above, one can identify a series of
increasing toughness, from pure crystals of the ceramic phase (Kc = 0.5MPa√m) through enamel, dentin, bone and
finally antler, which display increased toughness values up to about 5 MPa√m. Changes in microstructure are
responsible, as well as increasing amounts of the polymeric phase, which leads to decreased hardness in the same
sequence. In bone, fibrous features at the 100-micron scale (osteons, and in particular their boundaries) have a
strong role in causing crack arrest and deflection. These findings are clearly of considerable medical importance. For
example, changes in the microstructure and mineral content of bone are linked to diseases such as osteoporosis, so-
called “brittle bone disease”, which is highly debilitating.
Another very exciting development arising from studies of this kind is the creation of new materials, through the
concept of biomimetics. There is much interest in making new ceramic/polymer composites based on natural
46 David Taylor / Procedia Structural Integrity 2 (2016) 042–049
Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2016) 000–000 5

structures such as nacre, using advanced manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing. In the last few years there
has been a real explosion in the quantity and quality of this work, whereby some very significant increases in
toughness have been achieved.

3. Crack propagation and repair in bones

The bones of animals are ceramic/polymer composites; they are essentially brittle materials with low Kc values.
The principal failure modes during normal use are fatigue crack propagation and brittle fracture. So the fracture
mechanics concepts which we use in engineering are very much applicable to improve our understanding of the
function of the skeleton. This applies not only to the skeletal material of humans and other mammals, but also to the
exoskeletons of arthropods such as insects. One very exciting aspect of skeletal material is its capacity for self
repair. There has been a lot of work done by ourselves and others to understand how fatigue microcracks develop in
bone and how they are being continuously repaired by systems of living cells (Taylor et al 2007). This work has
been valuable in areas such as sports medicine, where better predictive models can prevent stress fractures in
athletes, and also in the detection and treatment of osteoporosis and other bone diseases in which bone becomes less
capable of self repair.
By contrast, there has been very little research done on cracking and repair in other organisms, including both
animals and plants. Recently, we published the first biomechanical study of damage repair in the exoskeleton of an
arthropod (Parle et al 2016). We introduced sharp notches into the legs of locusts, with a scalpel. By conducting
cantilever bending tests we measured the fracture toughness of the material (which is called cuticle) to be
4.1MPa√m and showed that it decreased to 2.1MPa√m when the cuticle (which normally contains a significant
amount of water) was allowed to dry out.
We then introduced similar notches into the legs of living insects. We found that after a period of three weeks or
more the Kc value had apparently increased to 7.0MPa√m (see figure 3).

Fig.3. Apparent fracture toughness of insect cuticle after injury (a sharp notch) and repair. “Control” indicates tests results from material removed
from the insect: “Injured (no repair)” refers to insects which did not form an endocuticle patch. The photographs show SEM images of fracture
surfaces. The cut surface of the notch is at the top: highlighted in pink colour is the fracture surface of the endocuticle patch.

Further examination showed that this was not due to any change in the material itself, but rather caused by the
formation of a new layer of cuticle, which had been deposited on the inside of the tube. Figure 3 shows a fracture
surface in which the original cut notch can be seen along with this new material, which is called endocuticle. We
were able to prove by further experiments that the deposition of this endocuticle was triggered by the damage which
we had introduced, and was deposited preferentially in the area near the notch.
We used finite element analysis to study this repair process (see figure 4). By modelling the cut and also the new
endocuticle layer we predicted that this layer should reduce the stress intensity K by a factor of 3.3, which was
somewhat larger than the increase in Kc measured experimentally. The reason for this difference is most likely that
 David Taylor / Procedia Structural Integrity 2 (2016) 042–049 47
6 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2016) 000–000

failure occurs first in the patch of endocuticle, when it reaches its tensile strength, after which it is no longer able to
protect the damaged area. Figure 4 shows the highly stressed material in the patch.

Figure 4: Finite element model of the leg of a locust containing a sharp notch and repaired with an endocuticle patch. Note the high stresses in the
patch immediately below the cut surface.

This work demonstrates the existence of a sophisticated repair process by which an injury that significantly
reduces structural integrity can be detected and repaired. This process is, we presume, orchestrated by living cells in
the epithelial layer on the inside of the skeleton, but as yet little is known about the biology of this system.

4. Competing failure modes in thin walled tubes

Thin walled tubes under stress can fail in a number of different ways. The problem has been analysed by Wegst
and Ashby (2007) for the case of bending in tubes made from orthotropic material, which is a common situation in
plant stems such as bamboo. We extended this approach to consider mixed bending and axial loading as found in the
exoskeletons of arthropods such as insects and crustaceans, and also in the tubular bones of humans and other
vertebrates (Taylor and Dirks 2012). Figure 5 shows theoretical predictions which suggest that the optimal
radius/thickness ratio r/t for the locust tibia in bending is 7.2. Tubes with larger values of r/t were predicted to fail by
local elastic buckling, whilst tubes with smaller r/t were predicted to fail when the bending stress exceeded the
strength of the material. Actual tibiae, tested when the adult insect was 14 days old, failed by buckling as predicted
(Parle et al 2015). More recent results have shown that as the insect ages, r/t decreases as a result of thickening of
the limb, passing through the optimal value, and the failure mode changes from buckling to fracture at the
compressive strength of the cuticle, in accordance with our predictions. This suggests that the exoskeletons of
48 David Taylor / Procedia Structural Integrity 2 (2016) 042–049
Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2016) 000–000 7

arthropods have evolved to have the best possible strength to weight ratio, given the constraints of their particular
method of making and growing their skeletons.

Fig.5. Theoretical predictions of optimum r/t ratios for insect cuticle in bending and in compression, with experimental results for the locust
tibia at age 14 days.

5. Concluding remarks

Natural materials and structures, in common with their engineering equivalents, need to maintain structural
integrity when subjected to applied forces. Nature works with a limited range of materials; almost all are composites
in which a soft, polymeric phase is reinforced with a harder, stiffer phase in the form of fibres or other high aspect-
ratio structures such as plates in nacre. These materials have, without exception, low toughness values, and are
constantly under threat of failing by cracking, so fracture mechanics is very relevant if we wish to understand and
learn from these materials. We find that they have developed some excellent strategies for maximizing toughness by
introducing structure at the micro and nano scales. Furthermore, natural materials are often able to compensate for
their poor resistance to damage development by using a continuous process of detection and repair, considerably
increasing their effective strength and durability. At the level of the structural component, Nature comes under
 David Taylor / Procedia Structural Integrity 2 (2016) 042–049 49
8 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2016) 000–000

severe constraints to produce high strength/weight ratios in the face of competing failure modes. We find that, at
least in some cases, evolution has worked in such a way as to provide solutions which are close to the optimum,
given the practical constraints which apply.
In conclusion, the study of natural materials and structures is a fascinating topic, and one in which important
discoveries can be made by applying well know concepts of fracture mechanics and structural integrity.

References

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hierarchical structure, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids. 55(2), 306-337.
Currey, J. D., Zioupos, P., Davies, P., Casinos, A., 2001. Mechanical properties of nacre and highly mineralized bone, Proceedings of the Royal
Society of London B 268(1462), 107-111.
Dirks J.-H., Taylor, D., 2012. Veins improve fracture toughness of insect wings. PLoS ONE 7: e43411
Gosler, A. G., Connor, O. R., Bonser, R. H. C., 2011. Protoporphyrin and eggshell strength: Preliminary findings from a passerine bird. Avian
Biology Research 4(4), 214-223.
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inorganic sources improves eggshell quality in aged laying hens, Poultry Science 82(12), 1903-1913.
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Taylor, D., Walsh, M., Cullen, A., O’Reilly, P., 2016, The fracture toughness of eggshell. Acta Biomaterialia In Press.
Wegst, U., Ashby, M., 2007. The structural efficiency of orthotropic stalks, stems and tubes. Journal of Materials Science 42, 9005-9014.
Xiao, J. F., Zhang, Y. N., Wu, S. G., Zhang, H. J., Yue, H. Y., Qi, G. H., 2014. Manganese supplementation enhances the synthesis of
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