On the damage tolerance of 3-D printed Mg-Ti interpenetrating-phase composites with bioinspired architectures

Bioinspired architectures are desired to achieve improved mechanical properties, but challenging to achieve in metallic systems. Here the authors fabricate a Mg-Ti interpenetrating phase composite with brick-and-mortar, Bouligand, and crossed-lamellar architectures by pressureless infiltrating method. Bioinspired architectures are effective in enhancing the mechanical properties of materials, yet are difficult to construct in metallic systems. The structure-property relationships of bioinspired metallic composites also remain unclear. Here, Mg-Ti composites were fabricated by pressureless infiltrating pure Mg melt into three-dimensional (3-D) printed Ti-6Al-4V scaffolds. The result was composite materials where the constituents are continuous, mutually interpenetrated in 3-D space and exhibit specific spatial arrangements with bioinspired brick-and-mortar, Bouligand, and crossed-lamellar architectures. These architectures promote effective stress transfer, delocalize damage and arrest cracking, thereby bestowing improved strength and ductility than composites with discrete reinforcements. Additionally, they activate a series of extrinsic toughening mechanisms, including crack deflection/twist and uncracked-ligament bridging, which enable crack-tip shielding from the applied stress and lead to "Gamma"-shaped rising fracture resistance R-curves. Quantitative relationships were established for the stiffness and strengths of the composites by adapting classical laminate theory to incorporate their architectural characteristics.