ABSTRACT

Nature has been guiding the design process of animal’s bodies in order to be best optimized for their environment. An example of this can be seen in the mantis shrimp which uses its powerful club to crack open mollusk shells. Images of these natural materials at the micro-level have shown us how the exoskeleton of the club is composed of layers of nanofibers that helically rotate, which is also termed the Bouligand microstructure.

The purpose of our research is to use simulations to determine the relationship between the rotational pitch angle and the impact resistance by using thin films made of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) nanofibers as a model system. The thin-film structure files are developed using MATLAB code. The Palmetto high-performance computing cluster is then used to run the molecular dynamics simulations on the projectile impact on the thin film. The Visual Molecular Dynamics program is used to visualize the simulation results. We find that a smaller pitch angle (18-42 degrees) for rotational degree achieves better impact resistance than other pitch angles. The project illustrates that the excellent impact resistance of the exoskeleton of the mantis shrimp is directly related to its internal microstructure.