Programmable Fracture-Resistant Metamaterial

Order-of-Magnitude Fracture Energy Gain

Actively controls the inelastic zone size via elastic instabilities to switch from intrinsic to extrinsic fracture behavior, enabling programmable fracture resistance in metamaterials.

Wang, Yujia · Liu, Yangchengyi W. · Kunlin, Wu · Zhang, Xuan · Xing, Hanzheng · Linghu, Changhong · Wang, Yifan · Li, Xiaoyan · Gao, Huajian

Nature 2026

Specifications

Fracture energy increase

{'zh': '10', 'en': '10'} 倍

Advantages

Order-of-Magnitude Increase in Fracture Energy

Controlled manipulation of the inelastic zone size enables a transition from intrinsic to extrinsic fracture behavior, leading to up to a one-order-of-magnitude increase in fracture energy.

Programmable Fracture Behavior

Fracture behaviours can be actively programmed by exploiting elastic instabilities, rather than relying on passive material properties.

Applications

• Impact-Resistant Materials：Programmable fracture behavior enhances energy absorption for impact protection.
• Aerospace Structures：Tailored fracture resistance improves damage tolerance of aerospace structures.
• Ceramic Matrix Composites：Elastic instabilities toughen ceramic matrix composites.
• Smart Structures：Programmable fracture behavior enables adaptive smart structures.