Funding Information: M.Z. and S.A.H. acknowledge funding of this work by DFG through Grant No. 1Za 171-7/1, and P.M. acknowledges DFG funding under MO 3049/3-1. S.A.H and M.P. also acknowledge participation as associate researchers in the training programme of DFG GRK 2423 FRASCAL. J.K. acknowledges funding from Academy of Finland (308235). M.J.A. acknowledges support from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 857470, from European Regional Development Fund via Foundation for Polish Science International Research Agenda PLUS programme Grant No. MAB PLUS/2018/8, and from the Academy of Finland (No. 278367 and No. 317464). T.M. acknowledges funding from The Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion. | openaire: EC/H2020/857470/EU//NOMATEN

By introducing hierarchical patterns of load-parallel cuts into axially loaded brittle sheets, the resistance to propagation of mode-I cracks is very significantly enhanced. We demonstrate this effect by simulation of two-dimensional beam network models and experimentally by testing paper and polystyrene (PS) sheets that are sliced with a laser cutter to induce load-perpendicular hierarchical cut patterns. Samples endowed with nonhierarchical reference patterns of the same cut density and nonsliced sheets are considered for comparison. We demonstrate that hierarchical slicing can increase failure load, apparent fracture toughness, and work of fracture of notched paper and PS sheets by factors between 2 and 10.

Peer reviewed