Low velocity impact resistance of bio-inspired building ceramic composites with nacre-like structure

Nacre in abalone shell exhibits prominently high toughness and remarkable inelasticity when subjected to the external loads, despite the brittle nature of its main constituent. Aiming to improve the impact resistance of the building composite materials, inspired from nacre, a layered and staggered structural system based on the building ceramic mosaic tiles joined with soft adhesive was designed and fabricated. Then, the ACI 544 drop weight test was performed on the above bio-inspired building ceramic composites, and the effects of partitioned tile layer, impact location, stagger mode, tile shape and size, adhesive type, as well as fiberglass mesh were experimentally assessed. The experimental results show high impact resistance of the proposed bio-inspired building ceramic composites under low velocity drop weight impact, and a design approach is proposed. The obtained conclusions could provide some helpful references for the design of protective structures.