Bioinspiration: failure and damage identification in natural seashells and translation to synthetic composites or biohybrid materials
Abstract
Many materials found in nature are comprised of relatively weak materials, yet they still exhibit superior mechanical performance. This performance originates within elegant hierarchical structures. Nacre exhibits remarkable strength and toughness despite its composition of greater than 95% aragonite, a brittle ceramic. By incorporating just 5% soft biopolymer into a hierarchical structure with the brittle ceramic, nacre is ~1000 times tougher than pure aragonite. This significant increase in toughness stems from toughening mechanisms that act at multiple length scales within the hierarchical structure. A better knowledge of these mechanisms is at sake in material science because they can be directly translated to synthetic materials - biomimicry approach - or we can also directly incorporate these natural materials into synthetic materials to create hybrid biomaterials.
Renovation of the Dune of Pilat welcome center
Opening on June 2023
Characterization of failure mechanisms in natural nacre
Recyling sea shells in environmental-friendly concrete
100% replacement of the granular skeleton
by Crassostrea gigas oyster shell
Recyling sea shells for geothermal well cementation
People
Current people in the group:
Andrew Wilson
MSc/PhD student
Recycling of natural and industrial wastes for environmental-friendly and high-performance multifunctional cement-based grouts
Tematuanui a Tehei Hantz
MSc/PhD student
Use of French Polynesia Pinctada pearl oyster shells for environmental-friendly concrete
Alumni
Elvis Baffoe
MSc student
Now: PhD studentUniv. Miami, USA
Audrey Gabard
MSc student (M1)
Ana Cláudia Pinto Dabés Guimarães
PhD StudentUse of oyster shell (Crassostrea gigas) as aggregate replacement for producing environmentally-friendly concrete(PhD defense 09-05-2022)Sustainability and carbon reduction advisor
BAM Nuttall
UK
Other collaborators:
Connected publications
Connected projects
Newpores - New Frontiers in Porous Materials
Granted by E2S UPPA, NewPores is an international hub dedicated to the mechanics and physics of porous materials, which intends to answer to new Energy and Environment challenges. This is a joint effort of the group on Geomechanics and Porous Materials (G2MP) of the Laboratoire des Fluides Complexes et leurs Réservoirs at E2S UPPA (France), the Centre for Sustainable Engineering of Geological and Infrastructure Materials (SEGIM) at Northwestern University (USA), the University of Vigo (Spain), the Technical University of Madrid (Spain) and University of Liège (Belgium).
BeCCoH - BÉton et Coulis pour la valorisation de COquilles d’Huîtres (BeCCoH)
OSTRA - Valorisation de coquilles d’huîtres dans des bétons à faible impact environnemental
OSTRA - Valorisation de coquilles d’huîtres dans des bétons à faible impact environnemental
Financé par la région Nouvelle-Aquitaine et la Communauté d'Agglomération Pays Basque, les projets BeCCoH et OSTRA visent à valoriser les déchets et coproduits coquillers, notamment produits sur le bassin sud d’Arcachon, dans des matériaux cimentaires tels que des bétons ou des coulis de ciment. Ils sont basé sur l’approche performantielle, une démarche innovante permettant de valider des bétons pour des applications spécifiques lorsque la norme NF EN 206-1, qui encadre la production de béton de construction en France, ne s’applique pas.
NacreWell - On the evaluation of Oyster and Nacre as high performance cement-based grouts for geothermal well cementation
Well cementation is used to mechanically link tubing to geological formation and it performs a crucial role to avoid mass transfers between the different geological layers during production. Considering the critical role cement grouts play in order to achieve a well integrity, there is the need to provide an ideal cement grout, which possesses high strength but low ductility and density, which can not be achieved by the classical synthetic materials. Some natural materials like oyster and nacre possess super mechanical performance that may help improve the performance of the grout. This project aims at incorporating oyster or nacre in cements grout formulation in order to increase their performance and decrease their environmental impact.