ARTICLE IN PRESS

Biomaterials 25 (2004) 751–756

Conch shell structure and its effect on mechanical behaviors

D.F. Houa,b, G.S. Zhoua, M. Zhenga,*
a
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, People’s Republic of China
b
School of Mechanical & Material Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, People’s Republic of China
Received 2 April 2003; accepted 19 June 2003

Abstract

The shell of pink conch is a kind of natural well-designed composite with excellent mechanical properties, which provides us
information for material design. In this paper the microstructures of pink conch shell are characterized by using SEM and TEM.
The microscopic analysis indicates that the pink conch shell is with crossed-lamellar microstructure and the angle between two
second-order lamellae is 70–90
. The cracking and fracture morphologies indicate that the crack deflection, bridge and fiber pullout
are the main toughening mechanisms. Bamboo lamellae are employed to make the simple bio-mimetic model materials. In the model
material the rotated angle between the fibers of each glued lamella varies from 0
to 90
. Three-point-bending is employed to test the
properties of models material, such as the elastic modulus, the flexural strength and the fracture strain energy density. It is found
that the fracture strain energy density of the specimens with the rotated angle between the fibers of the layers about 60
exhibits the
maximum value, which is close to the angle of the two second-order lamellae of the conch shell.
r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Conch shell; Microstructure; Self-strengthening; Fracture strain energy density

1. Introduction The idea that structures determine properties pro-

The Nature of the growth and the self-strengthening
of the natural materials is very attractive. According to
Darwin [1], the reason for the existence of living things is
that they could evolve and improve themselves in such a
way that their bodies are always compatible with the
environment of the surroundings. Therefore, in such a
sense, it is no doubt that the natural materials are the
most optimized and compatible materials in the world.
Their structures are highly integrated in natural organ-
isms, such as biological hard tissues—bone, tooth, and
mollusk shell, bark, skin of our body, etc. The laminated
organization of these structures is inherent at different
spatial scales (nano, micro, meso, macro). They all
exhibit special properties and functions. In the view-
point of material designer, it is beneficial to learn from
all these natural materials. Actually, learning from
nature has become now one of the hottest subjects in
material research [2–4].
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-29-266-5221; fax: +86-29-266-
3453.
E-mail address: mszheng@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (M. Zheng).
motes scientists to study the microstructures of natural
materials. Analysis indicates that the natural materials
are usually inhomogeneous and multi-phases, multi-
scale structures, or even porous. Most mollusk shells are
composites containing 95 vol% interlocking aragonite
(CaCO3) platelets staggered in successive lamina and
separated by a 5 vol% protein-polysaccharide matrix [5].
These shells are with excellent mechanical properties.
For example, the hardness and the toughness of nacre
are 10 and 1000 times as its principal constituent phases
(monolithic CaCO3), respectively [6]. The nacre has
laminated structures, which may be the source of its
highly optimized toughness, etc. It might be possible to
mimic this natural structure to fabricate load bearing,
heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant composite mate-
rial.
Recently, much attention has been paid to study
pearl-mother shell, so that excellent material can be
designed. In particular, pink conch shell has different
lamellar staggering form from that of pearl-mother
shell. The specific role of cross-laminated structures, the
response of the structure to the load and the effect of the
organic-inorganic interfaces on mechanical behavior of

0142-9612/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0142-9612(03)00555-6
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
752 D.F. Hou et al. / Biomaterials 25 (2004) 751–756
pink conch shell are lacking, though the previous
investigations have indicated the structural character-
istics and the excellent properties of pink conch. In the
present paper, the results of the microstructures and
their effect on the mechanical behaviors of pink conch
shell are reported.
2. Cross-laminated structures of pink conch shell
Pink conch (Strombus gigas, a large predatory
gastropod) is a member of the conus family of shells.
The shell has a logarithmic spiral shape. Conus shells
have a cross-lamellar structure that consists of lath-like
aragonite crystals (99.9 wt%) and a tenuous organic
layer (0.1 wt%) [3]. The macroscopic and microscopic
images of the conch shell in different visions are given in
Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 1 indicates that the microstructures of
conch shell are in three macro-layers. Each macro-layer
consists of many crossed sub-lamellas named first-order
lamellas, which can be subdivided into second-order
lamellae. Furthermore, the second-order lamellae are
made up of third-order lamellae, which are considered
single-crystals and multicrystals (see Fig. 3 for details).
Further analysis indicates that each lamella is connected
to its neighbor lamella with proteinaceous adhesive. The
first-order lamella is with the thickness of 5–30 mm and
several micrometers wide, while the second one is with
about 5 mm thickness and 5–30 mm wide. The thickness
of the lamellae varies to some extents. In some area
lamellae becomes rather thinner or eventually disap-
pears. From Fig. 2, it is clear that each lamella consists
of lath-like crystals. The neighbored first-order lamellas
have different orientation. Moreover, one lamella
rotates its ‘‘lamellar plane’’ an angle about 70–90
with
respect to that of its neighborhood layer. The micro-
scopic plywood sketch map of conch shell is shown in
Fig. 4, which is similar to that given by Menig [3].
Conclusively, the characteristic of the microstructure
of conch shell is lamellae type, which consists of sub-
lamellae and lamellae crossing lamellas. In man-made
Fig. 1. Fracture surface of conch shell.
20 µm
Fig. 2. Fracture surface of crossed-lamellar.
composites, it is quite rare to see this kind of structure.
Currey showed that the members of the genus Conus
have characteristically shaped shells [7]. These shells are
with crossed-lamellar structures. This tessellated struc-
ture might be the resource of its excellent properties.
3. Brittleness of the shell
Curry and Kohn [7] performed three-point bending
experiments to test the mechanical properties of shells of
Conus striatus in different loading faces. They found
that the flexural strength of shells is varying in range of
70–200 MPa with the orientation. Menig et al. [3]
designed three-point bend and compression experiments
to test the mechanical properties of shells. Their samples
were machined with two different directions, i.e., the
parallel and the perpendicular ones with respect to the
shell axis, which corresponds to parallel and perpendi-
cular directions of the structure of the outer macro-layer
as well. The results reflect that the shells exhibit
anisotropic properties. However, it needs to declare
that the shells used by Menig are in dry state. In fact, the
property of biomaterial is living dependent due to the
thin organic layer being vital to its properties. We have
studied the variation of the shell properties with respect
to the time duration after death; it indicates that the
hardness, the brittleness and the flexural strength
increase with the time duration after death, while the
toughness decreases.
Actually, the brittleness reflects the mechanical
responses of micro-mechanisms in material in a sense.
Therefore brittleness can be used as a factor to
characterize the variation of the property in different
orientation with respect to the shell axis.
3.1. Materials and experiments
All samples are cut out from the same shell in order to
minimize scatter in the tests, care is taken to prepare
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
D.F. Hou et al. / Biomaterials 25 (2004) 751–756 753

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Fig. 3. TEM micrographs of pink shell and diffraction patterns, (a) and (c) TEM micrographs of single-crystal and multicrystal; (b) and (d)
diffraction patterns of single-crystal and multicrystal.

first order Table 1

lamella Comparison of the brittleness of pink conch shell and some kinds of
ceramics
outer
macrolayer Material Comments H=Kc ðmm1=2 Þ
second order
lamella S1 Parallel 0.20
middle
S2 Perpendicular 0.19
macrolayer
third order
NaCl [8] Monocrystal 0.6
lamella SiC [8] Hot-pressed 5
inner
macrolayer Si3N4 [8] Hot-pressed 3
B4C [8] Hot-pressed 13
Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of crossed-lamellar structure of conch shell.

samples. Two types of specimens (S1, S2) are prepared
from the middle macro-layer, i.e., the parallel and the
perpendicular ones with respect to the shell axis,
respectively. Micro-hardness tester (MH-5) is employed
to perform the tests.
3.2. Results and discussions
Using indentation mechanics, a simple index of
brittleness, the ratio H=Kc ; has been derived in terms
of basic hardness and toughness parameters [8]. Here H
is hardness (resistance to deformation) and Kc is
toughness (resistance to fracture).
Sarikaya performed four-point bend fracture tough-
ness tests for pink conch tested [9], the averaged value of
the toughness is 10 MPa/m1/2. Here we employ this
value for Kc to conduct H=Kc ; for the pink conch shell.
The values of brittleness H=Kc for other ceramic
materials are from [8]. The comparison of the brittleness
for pink conch shell and ceramic materials is listed in
Table 1.
In general the sole CaCO3 is brittle, which is the main
component of conch shell, but the conch shell exhibits
rather tough (see Table 1). The resource of the high
toughness of conch shell might be its special micro-
structure. Therefore it is necessary to study the response
of the microstructure of conch shell to its mechanical
properties of the shell in details.
In order to understand the excellent toughness
property of the conch shell, the trace of the indentation
test is studied in detail. Fig. 5 is a typical SEM image of
the indentation feature, which shows many cracks in the
middle macro-layer. The damage zones around the
indentation reflect the lamellar character of the micro-
structure. The extension of cracks is not along the
direction of the two diagonals, which is quite different
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
754 D.F. Hou et al. / Biomaterials 25 (2004) 751–756
50 µm
Fig. 5. Feature of the indentation on surface perpendicular to the
conch shell axis in the middle macrolayer.
from those in most monolith materials. It seems that the
cracks are trying to find easy ways to extend. In fact
those weak interface (i.e. organic layer) provides the
easy way. Therefore, the binding forces between the
organic phase and the aragonite layer will hinder the
further propagation of the crack. Crack A initials from a
corner of the indentation but extends in the interfaces
between the first-order lamellas and then bifurcates and
deflects. Many cracks stretch from crack A and extend
through the second and the third-order lamellae.
Apparent parallel second-order interfaces in the region
of cracks become visible optically, whereas they are
invisible in the intact regions (see Fig. 5). Those main
cracks are clearly segmented with the segments follow-
ing inter-lamellar boundaries. Numerous micro-cracks
are present parallel to these segments. These observa-
tions identify the idea that inter-lamellar boundary is the
weak interface, and impedes the direct propagation of
cracks. The angle between two groups of parallel cracks
is about 70–90
. In some cases, lamella is very thin or
even disappears gradually, as shown in Fig. 5. The
delocalization of damage, the abundant crack bridging
and the cracking branching are also very clear. It is well
known that branching crack dissipates more energy and
enhances the toughness of materials even for the
structures composing of relatively brittle constituents.
On the other hand, the deflecting crack can prolong the
propagation path, which could absorb more energy as
well, especially the propagation resistance increases
significantly if the crack deflects to a direction with an
unfavorable stress state [10]. So such a kind of crack
deflection results in toughening the conch shell. In
addition, the multiple cracking is another effective way
to enhance the toughness, which can even decrease the
orientation dependence of the toughness, since the shell
is a composite structure that composes many layers with
varying orientations. Fiber pullout often occurs with
crack deflection (see Fig. 2a). Laths can be seen
protruding from the fracture surface. These features
are very similar to those of the advanced ceramic
composite, which utilities fiber pullout as a toughening
mechanism. Additionally, the viscoplastic deformation
of the organic layers can enhance the toughness of the
conch shell as well [3]. Conclusively, the complex
architecture of the conch shell plays a key role in
retarding the failure by delocalizing, bridging and
branching cracks. Up to now, the remained problem is
the significance of the specified angle of 70–90
between
the second-order lamellas.
4. Fabrications of structure mimicking materials and its
properties
4.1. Materials and methods
In order to study the nature of the specified angle 70–
90
between second-order lamellas structure in the
conch shell, mimicking materials are fabricated and
tested.
Bamboo lamella is employed to manufacture multi-
lamella materials. Only the middle part of the bamboo is
taken to conduct the model materials so as to reduce the
scatters of the properties of the fabricated materials. The
bamboo lamella has fibred structures with the elastic
modulus of 17.7 GPa [11]. The bamboo lamella is
machined as a strip with the size about 60  5 
0.4 mm3.
Gluing the bamboo lamellas with polymeric adhesive
whose module is about 2 GPa [11] makes the specimen.
Each specimen is composed of five lamellas glued
together. The thickness of adhesive layer is kept about
0.1 mm, which indicates that the volume fraction of the
adhesive layer is about 0.15. The lamellas in each
specimen are numbered as 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 from upper
layer to the lower one. The orientations of the fibers in
lamellas with the numbers 1, 3 and 5 are identical. While
the fibers in the lamellas with the numbers 2 and 4 rotate
certain angle with respect to their neighbor lamellas, say
lamellas 1, 3 and 5. The rotated angles between glued
fibers of the neighbor lamellas are selected as 0
, 20
,
45
, 60
, 75
and 90
for each group of specimens,
respectively. Air bubbles were carefully excluded by
applying pressure regularly to the platelets. Pockets of
adhesive prevented from accumulating by allowing only
the straightest edges to lie side by side. The adhesive was
allowed to cure at 20
C for 48 h.
Three-point bending test is conducted to study the
mechanical response of the model materials at a span of
40 mm. The mechanical properties, such as the elastic
modulus, the flexural strength and the fracture energy
density, etc., are evaluated.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
D.F. Hou et al. / Biomaterials 25 (2004) 751–756 755

4.2. Results and discussions 20

18

4.2.1. Elastic modulus and fracture strength 16

Apparent elastic modulus /GPa

Various theoretical models can be used to predict the 14 Test date
elastic modulus of a composite (see Fig. 6). The Voigt 12 Trend curve

model or ‘‘rule-of-mixtures’’ model reflecting a parallel 10

arrangement of fillers and matrix gives [12] 8

Ec ¼ Vf þ ð1  Vf ÞEm ; ð1Þ 6

4
where V ; E; f; m and c reflect the volume fraction, the 2
elastic modulus, the filler, the matrix and the composite,
0
respectively. In the Reuss model the elements are in 0 20 40 60 80 100
series [12] Rotated angle / o
1 Vf ð1  Vf Þ Fig. 7. Variations of elastic modulus vs. rotated angle of bamboo
¼ þ : ð2Þ
Ec Ef Em lamellas.

The predictions of the two models are in dependence

on the volume fraction and the Young’s moduli of the
200
components only.
180
As to our model material, the volume fraction of Test date
160 Trend curve
adhesive is well fixed. Only the elastic modulus of the
specimens with the angle of 0
between neighbor Flexural strength /MPa 140

lamellas can be estimated by Eq. (1) directly, the 120

predicted value is approximately 15.3 GPa. 100

Fig. 7 shows the variations of the elastic modulus for 80
the model materials with respect to the rotated angle
60
between layers. From this figure it is clear that the elastic
40
modulus decreases with the rotated angle, which is also
in agreement with the fact that the static longitudinal 0 20 40 60 80 100

flexure modulus of bamboo is large than the transverse Rotated angle / o

ones. From Fig. 7, the value of the module with 0
between neighbor lamellas is about 15.7 GPa, which is
close to the prediction by using Eq. (1) at Vf ¼ 1 
0:15 ¼ 0:85; says 15.3 GPa.
The trend of the variations of the flexural strength
with respect to the rotated angle between the neighbor
lamellas is shown in Fig. 8. Fracture usually occurs in a
series of steps corresponding to the breakage of
individual lamellar. Flexural failure mostly concentrates
on the loading regions. The region under neutral surface
along the load ruptures with fiber pullout under tensile
stressing, the middle region delaminates and the upper
failures with compression. The mean flexure strength of
parallel
Ef Ec
series
GPa
GPa
Fig. 8. Variation of flexuous strength vs. rotated angle of bamboo
lamella.
samples with 0
rotated angle is about 152 MPa. The
flexural strengths decrease with the rotated angle till the
angle of 90
. The lamellas with rotated angle of 90

failures in traverse rupture. It indicates that these
specimens can only suffer lower loads.
4.2.2. Fracture strain energy density
Fig. 9 shows the variations of the fracture strain
energy density with respect to the rotated angle between
the neighbor lamellas. The model material with the
rotated angle about 60
exhibits the maximum value of
the fracture strain energy density in Fig. 9, which differs
from those of the elastic modulus and the flexural
strength (see Figs. 7 and 8). This special rotated angle,
60
, is quite close to the orientated angle of the lamellas
in conch shell, the latter is around 70
. So the rotated

Ec
angle 70–90
of conch shell might result from the
requirement of fracture strain energy density maximum.
The higher fracture strain energy density, the higher
Em the ductility of the material. Material ductile failure is in
filler matrix fact a proper outcome of excessive internal dissipation in
Vm /(Vf +Vm)*100% the viewpoint of physicist. According to modern non-
Fig. 6. Comparative of elastic moduli of parallel and series models. equilibrium thermodynamics—dissipative structure and

756
0.22
0.20
0.18
fracture energy density /MPa
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0 20 40 60
Rotated angle / o
Fig. 9. Variation of strain energy density vs. rotated angle of bamboo
lamellas.
synergetic theories [13–15], each stable animate body has
to absorb and dissipate energy in some manners so that
a self-organized and self-constraint structure can be
maintained in it. In the case of self-constraint strength-
ening, the low-strength layers can still be used to
construct multiplayer composites, which have a higher
tolerance to damage provided that they are properly
glued together [5].
5. Concluding remarks
The microstructure of crossed-lamellar consisting of
sub-lamellae is the characteristic textural pattern of
conch shell. Third order lamellae consist of many single-
crystals and multi-crystals at atomic scale
Indentation tests indicate that many ceramics are
more brittle than conch shell. Damage zones develop
around the indentation, which reflects the mechanical
response of the crossed-lamellar microstructure. The
crack deflection, the crack bridging, the crack branching
and the fiber pullout are the main toughening mechan-
isms of such shell.
The test results of the mimic materials show that the
fracture energy density exhibits extreme for the mimic
material with the rotated angle of 60
, which is close to
the orientated angle of the lamellas in conch shell, 70
.
The responsibility of the angle 70–90
between the two
second-order lamellae in conch shell may contribute to
the increase of fracture strain energy density, and
therefore the toughness. The present results indicate
that excellent composite material with higher ductility
could be fabricated provided that the rotated angle
between neighbor layers in lamellar structures is
properly designed.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
D.F. Hou et al. / Biomaterials 25 (2004) 751–756
Conch shell with crossed-lamellar microstructure
takes on excellent properties, which gives material
design a highlight future. One should take into account
Test date the fact that bio-mineralization has evolved over
Trend curve
millions of years, while materials science has only
developed over a century. In any sense, it is sure that
there is still more to be learned from our world.
Acknowledgements
80 100
The authors would like to show their thanks to
Chinese doctoral project foundation (98069813) and the
excellent young teacher program (20022090) for their
kind financial supports.
References
[1] Li ZY. Charles Robert Darwin. Shenyang: Liaohai Press; 1998 (in
Chinese).
[2] Laraia VJ, Heuer AH. Novel composite microstructures and
mechanical behavior of mollusk shell. J Am Ceram Soc
1989;71:2177–9.
[3] Menig R, Meyers MH, Meyers MA, Vecchio KS. Quasi-static and
dynamic mechanical response of Strombus gigas (conch) shells.
Mater Sci Eng A 2001;297:203–11.
[4] Was GS, Foecke T. Deformation & fracture in microlaminates.
Thin Solid Film 1996;286:1–31.
[5] Yang XF. A self-constraint strengthening mechanism and its
application to seashells. J Mater Res 1995;10:1485–90.
[6] Jackson AP, Vincent JF, Turner RM. The mechanical design of
nacre. Proc R Soc London B 1988;234:415–40.
[7] Currey JD, Kohn AJ. Fracture in the crossed-lamellar structure of
Conus shells. J Mater Sci 1976;11:1615–23.
[8] Lawn BR, Marshall DB. Hardness, toughness, and brittleness: an
indentation analysis. J Am Ceram Soc 1979;62:347–50.
[9] Katti DR, Katti KS, Sopp JM, Sarikaya M. 3D finite element
modeling of mechanical response in nacre-based hybrid nano-
composites. Comput Theoret Polym Sci 2001;11:397–404.
[10] Feng QL, Cui FZ, Pu G, Wang RZ, Li HD. Crystal orientation,
toughening mechanisms and a mimic of nacre. Mater Sci Eng C
2000;11:19–25.
[11] Xian XJ, Xian DG, Wei YW. Resin composites reinforced by
bamboo fiber and their morphology. Beijing: Science Press; 1995.
p. 51–9.
[12] Jackson AP, Vincent JF, Turner RM. A physical model of nacre.
Compos Sci Technol 1989;36:255–66.
[13] Glansdorff P, Prigogine I, Thermodynamics of structures,
stability and fluctuation, Chinese Edition. Shaanxi: People
Educational Press; 1990. p. 12–50.
[14] Sih GC. Thermo-mechanics of solids, non-equilibrium irreversi-
bility. Theor Appl Fract Mech 1988;9:175–98.
[15] Zheng M, Zhou G, Zacharopoulos DA, Kuna M. Crack initiation
in StE 690 steel characterized by strain energy density criterion.
Theor Appl Fract Mech 2001;36:41–145.