Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Fracturing is unavoidable and threatens the reliability and functionality of materials. Therefore, regulating the propagation of cracks in a predictable and ductile manner is of paramount importance. Herein, we exploit the properties of topological mechanical metamaterials (TMMs) as a versatile mechanism to guide cracks unidirectionally and turn fracturing of lattices made of brittle materials into ductile events. Inspired by quantum topological states, recent discoveries of TMMs have uncovered varieties of unconventional mechanical phenomena, ranging from one-way wave propagation to polar elasticity. We show that polarized floppy modes occurring in TMMs lead to strongly asymmetric stress fields localizing around the crack tips, leading to ductile one-way fracturing, in sharp contrast to classical theories of fractures in brittle materials. Our work demonstrates the universality of this fracture unidirectionality feature, which is protected by TMM's bulk topology, and provides robust solutions in programmable fracturing for a broad class of materials and structures.
Source: Nature Communications
Authors: Xinyu Wang, Siddhartha Sarkar, Stefano Gonella, Xiaoming Mao
Institutions: University of Michigan, University of Minnesota
Language: English
Subfield: Mechanical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,990
OpenAlex ID: W7127915654