Damage and failure mechanism of bioinspired helical layered structure under low velocity impact

Inspired by natural organisms, this paper employs carbon fiber epoxy resin composite thin layers to prepare a bioinspired helical layered structural material with excellent strength and toughness by imitating the internal helical layered structural of the mantis shrimp's rods. The deformation failure and energy absorption characteristics of this material under low velocity impact loads were studied. It shows that, the helical layered structure samples with different interlayer angles exhibit complex intralayer and interlayer stress distributions during the deformation and failure processes, which significantly affect load transfer efficiency. As the interlayer helix angle changes, these intralayer and interlayer stress distributions will vary significantly, which may lead to complex failure modes such as fiber breakage, matrix cracking, fiber-matrix debonding, and delamination, and furthermore have a substantial impact on the material's impact resistance and energy absorption. These results provide positive guidance for the internal structure design and performance optimization of lightweight, high- strength, and high-toughness materials.