The paper presents for the first time the material properties and energy absorption capacity of durian shells with an attempt to use as an alternative sustainable material and mimic their structural characteristics to design a bio-inspired structure for protective packaging applications. A series of quasi-static compression tests were carried out to determine Young's modulus and bioyield stress of the durian shells as well as their energy absorption capacity. The mesocarp layers and thorns are interesting parts for investigating their energy absorption characteristics because they play an important role in protecting the flesh of durians during their drop impact onto the ground. The mesocarp layers of the shell were subjected to axial and lateral compression while the thorn specimens were compressed under axial loading with an increasing number of thorns. The results showed that the densification strain, plateau stress and specific energy absorption of the mesocarp layer under lateral loading is higher than that under axial loading. Furthermore, the compression tests on the thorns demonstrated that an increase in the number of thorns helped to absorb more energy and the specific energy absorption of the thorns was nearly two times higher than that of the mesocarp layer under the axial loading. In addition, the cyclic loading of the thorns showed that the extent of reversibility of deformation in the thorns decreases from 32% at the first cycle to around 10% at the 9th-cycle. Finally, the microstructure of the thorn and mesocarp layer was investigated to explain the experimental observation. The results indicated that the spherical shape associated with the thorns and mesocarp materials displayed an excellent energy absorption efficiency that can be mimicked to design an effective bio-inspired absorber for packing applications.

本文首次介绍了榴莲壳的材料特性和能量吸收能力，试图用作可持续的替代材料，并模仿其结构特征，以设计出具有生物启发性的结构，用于保护性包装应用。进行了一系列的准静态压缩试验，以确定榴莲壳的杨氏模量和生物屈服应力以及它们的能量吸收能力。中果皮层和荆棘是研究其能量吸收特性的有趣部分，因为它们在榴莲落到地面上时在保护榴莲的肉中起着重要作用。壳的中果皮层受到轴向和横向压缩，而刺标本则在轴向载荷下随着刺的数量增加而受到压缩。结果表明，侧向载荷作用下中果皮层的致密化应变，平台应力和比能吸收高于轴向载荷作用下的中果皮层。此外，对荆棘的压缩试验表明，荆棘数量的增加有助于吸收更多的能量，并且在轴向载荷下，荆棘的比能吸收率比中果皮层高近两倍。此外，荆棘的周期性载荷表明，荆棘变形的可逆性程度从第一个周期的32％下降到第九个周期的10％左右。最后，研究了刺果皮和中果皮层的微观结构，以解释实验观察结果。结果表明，与荆棘和中果皮材料相关的球形显示出优异的能量吸收效率，可以模仿该能量吸收率，从而设计出一种有效的生物启发性吸收器，用于包装应用。