Disorder enhances the fracture toughness of 2D mechanical metamaterials.

Sage Fulco, Michal K Budzik, Hongyi Xiao, Douglas J Durian, Kevin T Turner

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in PNAS nexus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Inherently Disordered Auxetic Metamaterials.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Sage FulcoDepartment of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4591-0521

Michal K BudzikDepartment of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6429-0364

Hongyi XiaoDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5174-2061

Douglas J DurianDepartment of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3240-2381

Kevin T TurnerDepartment of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4963-4568

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Mechanical metamaterials with engineered failure properties typically rely on periodic unit cell geometries or bespoke microstructures to achieve their unique properties. We demonstrate that intelligent use of disorder in metamaterials leads to distributed damage during failure, resulting in enhanced fracture toughness with minimal losses of strength. Toughness depends on the level of disorder, not a specific geometry, and the confined lattices studied exhibit a maximum toughness enhancement at an optimal level of disorder. A mechanics model that relates disorder to toughness without knowledge of the crack path is presented. The model is verified through finite element simulations and experiments utilizing photoelasticity to visualize damage during failure. At the optimal level of disorder, the toughness is more than

Indexed as

disordered materialsfracture toughnessmechanical metamaterialsnetwork materialsphotoelasticity

Identifiers

PMID39925855

DOI10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf023

PMCPMC11803419

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.