Effects of homogenization technique and introduction of interfaces in a multiscale approach to predict the elastic properties of arthropod cuticle.

In this paper the mechanical response of the arthropod cuticle is evaluated by means of a multiscale approach including interface effects. The cuticle's elastic behavior is modeled at the nano and the micro scales by mean-field homogenization techniques. With respect to the work of Nikolov et al. (2011), the idea has been extended to study, at different scales of the structure, the effect of the used homogenization technique as well as the interface effect on the global elastic properties. First results revealed the sensitivity of the used homogenization technique on the global predicted elastic properties of the arthropod cuticle. To account for the interface between the fillers and the matrix of the composite structure of the arthropod cuticle, interphases are assumed at different scales of the structure with the same shape and topological orientation as the fillers. The approaches are based on few parameters directly related to the mechanical properties, the volume fraction and the morphology of the interphase. Results of the predicted elastic properties using the multiscale model including interphases are in good agreement with the experimental results. We show that the introduction of interphases leads to an improvement of the global elastic response in comparison to the multiscale model without interphases.