Microstructural scale effects in the nonlinear elastic response of bio-inspired wavy multilayers undergoing finite deformation

Materials with wavy microstructures span disciplinary boundaries, yet relatively little systematic work has been done to characterize their thermo-mechanical response. Motivated by recent work on the elastic–plastic response of wavy periodic multilayers, and the discovered layer thickness effect in the post-yield domain, we extend our finite-volume based homogenization theory in order to investigate the effect of microstructural refinement, as well as geometric and material parameters, in this class of periodic materials in the finite-deformation domain. Micromechanical analysis of a model wavy multilayered system which mimics certain biological tissues quantifies the importance of layer thickness, and hence the microstructural bending stiffness, on the stiffening stress–stretch response. The role of the matrix phase in the unfolding process is also highlighted. The results provide insight into the design of materials intended to mimic the response of a certain class of biological tissues with stiffening characteristics such as chordae tendineae.