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MIT Researchers Find Conch Shells Hold The Secret To Impact Resistant Armour

OptimusPrime

What we were fond of blowing as a horn when hit the beaches in the tropics when we were young may just hold the secret to developing material for future armour. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) looked into the structure of a conch shell to find out what makes them unusually strong.

Whilst a conch shell is made of chalk, which can be brittle and turn into powdery bits, the geometry of the structure of the shell is that one that gives its strength and much stronger than a lot of other materials. This structure can then be reproduced, even with 3D printing, and can used as impact resistant armour for ballistic helmet and body armour as reported in the Advanced Material journal by the MIT graduate student Grace Gu, postdoc Mahdi Takaffoli, and McAfee Professor of Engineering Markus Buehler.

The material of the shell has what Gu explains having a complex, three-tiered structure zig-zag matrix that a crack has to go through a maze that it cannot turn into a big one and making the shell resistant to breakage.

Using 3D printing, they recreated the structure of the shell and subjected to an impact test using the “drop tower” tool which they can use in a controlled environment. Although the 3D printed material is no exactly the same as a real world conch shell as they have variations in quality, they team believed that 3D printed material based on the conch structure is 85% better at preventing crack propagation than the strongest material and 70% better than fibre composite material.

Since the conch shell structure has toughness or the ability to dissipate energy, and strength, the ability to resist damage, it makes it an ideal material that can be incorporated in protective gear for soldiers and athletes. That means future ballistic helmets and body armour may just incorporate the conch shell-like material.

According to the MIT team, with the use of 3D printing technology, it is possible to produce personalized protective gear. By using a scan of the skull, they can create a highly customized helmet for the user.

It is still too early to say if the existing material they have developed will the final material as they just developed it as a flat material rather than on curved shapes as the impact protection will vary and will probably better as curve surfaces can help deflect projectiles. But don’t worry, if the material they develop will be used for head protection, the soldier will not look like a conch shell, product designers will have to make consider ergonomics  and make it more tacticool.

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