Abalone: Toughening Mechanisms
Mesolayer: Growth Bands
Microbuckling at Growth Bands
Sections of aragonite tile are interrupted with growth bands
“mesolayer”
   
Budiansky Equation [1]:
Ratio of thicknesses of kink bands and spacing between reinforcement units (w/d)
•E is the Young’s modulus of the fibers
•C is their volume fraction.
[1] Budiansky, B., Comput. Struct., 1983,16,3.