Page 7 - MSAM-1-2

Materials Science in Additive Manufacturing

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Flexural behavior of 3D printed bio-inspired

interlocking suture structures

Sachini Wickramasinghe , Truong Do , Phuong Tran *
1
2
1
1 Department of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
2 College of Engineering and Computer Science, VinUniversity, Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract

Additive manufacturing has allowed producing various complex structures inspired
by natural materials. In this research, the bio-inspired suture structure was 3D
printed using the fused deposition modeling printing technique to study its bending
response behavior. Suture is one of the most commonly found structures in biological
bodies. The primary purpose of this structure in nature is to improve flexibility by
absorbing energy without causing permeant damage to the biological structure. An
interesting discovery of the suture joint in diabolical ironclad beetle has given a great
opportunity to further study the behavior of these natural suture designs. Inspired
by the elliptical shape and the interlocking features of this suture, specimens were
designed and 3D printed using polylactic acid thermoplastic polymer. A three-point
bending test was then conducted to analyze the flexural behavior of each suture
design, while digital image correlation and numerical simulation were performed to
capture the insights of deformation process.

*Corresponding author: Keywords: Suture structure; Fused deposition modeling; Three-point bending; Digital
Phuong Tran image correlation; Numerical simulation
(jonathan.tran@rmit.edu.au)
Citation: Wickramasinghe S, Do T,
Tran P, 2022, Flexural behavior of
3D printed bio-inspired interlocking 1. Introduction
suture structures. Mater Sci Addi
Manuf. 1(2): 9. Throughout the years of evolution, nature has developed and optimized complex
https://doi.org/10.18063/msam.v1i2.9
structures to achieve specific functions in every biological body. These complex structures
Received: March 17, 2022 inspire the development of materials and structures with enhanced performances [1,2] .
Accepted: April 12, 2022 Three-dimensional (3D) printing or additive manufacturing (AM) has made it possible
to recreate these complex natural structures and adapt them into engineering applications
Published Online: May 26, 2022
to improve their functionalities [3-7] .
Copyright: © 2022 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article Among various natural structures, suture interfaces are visible in a wide range of
distributed under the terms of the species and have independently evolved to optimize the performance of diverse biological
Creative Commons Attribution systems. Suture structures can be found in mammal crania, deer skull, turtle carapace,
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, red-bellied woodpecker beak, boxfish armor, diatoms, and insect cuticles [8-14] . They
provided the original work is provide flexibility to the structure to allow large deformations to absorb impact energy
properly cited. and damp shocks while maintaining structural integrity [15-17] . Depending on the species,
Publisher’s Note: Whioce the complexity, interlocking features, and sutures’ geometry vary to achieve targeted
Publishing remains neutral with properties [18,19] . For example, triangular sutures can be found in woodpecker beak and
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional interlocking complex suture designs can be found in ammonite shells and diatoms, while
affiliations. elliptical shape interlocking sutures are visible in diabolical ironclad beetle [20]

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2022) 1 https://doi.org/10.18063/msam.v1i2.9