Bio-inspired, metal additive manufacturing interlocked structures: Geometrically design and fracture performance analysis

Suture-inspired interlocked interfaces in nature exhibit promising industrial applications potentials in advanced mechanical structures, devices and equipment. In this paper, the parametric design of interlocked interfaces is performed, and selective laser melting (SLM) additive manufacturing tensile specimens and compact tension (CT) fracture specimens with sutured interfaces are harvested, where AlSi₁₀Mg raw materials are used as constituent materials. Afterwards, compact tension tensile fracture experiments and corresponding finite element simulations were performed and compared, where force-displacement curves for different interface structural geometrical parameters were harvested. The mechanical properties and failure modes of the interlocked interface structures were analyzed through experiments and simulations verification. Crack-tip opening displacement (CTOD) and fracture energy criteria were used to evaluate the fracture toughness of the interlocked specimen interfaces. In addition, parametric analysis was carried out to investigate the influence of different interlocked structural parameters on the interface mechanical performances and failure features. Accordingly, it can be concluded that the interface strength, toughness, and failure mechanisms can be rationally tuned through given geometrical parameters of the re-entrant interface microstructures.