Nano finite element modeling of the mechanical behavior of biominerals using a multi-scale (virtual internal bond) model

Biocomposites, specifically mineralized collagen fibrils, have strong mechanical properties, like elastic modulus, fracture toughness and fracture strength, while its constituents are relatively weaker in these aspects. Hence, the objective of this research is to develop, outline, apply and demonstrate issues involving a new nano explicit FE based framework, by which the mechanical behavior of mineralized collagen fibrils can be studied. A multi-scale VIB model is used to model this behavior. In this research two models have been studied. The first model attempts to illustrate the hypothesis that materials are less sensitive to flaws at nanoscale and the second model studies the mechanical behavior of a dahlite mineral crystal. Two important implementation characteristics have been introduced and illustrated, namely; scaled properties can be used at micro and nano length scales with scaled dimensions and secondly the loading time can be appropriately scaled without the loading becoming dynamic.