Bioinspired transparent hexahedral structural design enables high-impact resistance composites

Generally, bioinspired structures often exhibit superior mechanical performance compared to traditional structures, due to their excellent impact resistance and energy absorption. In the present study, we design a bioinspired transparent hexahedral structure, in which the glass panels on the first and second layers are arranged in different ways. Using experiments and finite element method simulations, we demonstrate that the bioinspired transparent hexahedral structure exhibits high-impact resistance because its local severe damage forms easily, dissipating the projectile's kinetic energy. Under a high-speed steel ball impact, the damage of bioinspired hexahedral structure concentrates on the center region, exhibiting a progressive damage and failure mode. This is in stark contrast to that of the traditional structure, in which the panel cracks are divergent. More importantly, the design of bioinspired hexahedral structures may decrease the intensity of tensile stress wave and shear stress waves on the surface of the glass panel of the composites. Therefore, the high-impact resistance of the bioinspired hexahedral structure is significantly improved with a relatively small damaged area. This study provides valuable insights into the design of biomimetic structural composites with excellent impact resistance.