Abstract
In order to design a painless and mechanically durable micro syringe-needle system for biomedical applications, the study of insect stingers is of interest because of their elegant structures and functionalities. In the present work, the structure, mechanical properties and the mechanical behavior during insertion of wasp and honeybee stingers have been investigated. The non-invasive imaging tool, micro-computed tomography has been employed to reveal the 3D-structures of wasp and honeybee stingers. A quasi-static nanoindentation instrument was used to measure the nanomechanical properties. Both wasp and honeybee stingers have graded mechanical properties, decreasing along their longitudinal direction starting from the base. The computed tomography images and the measured material properties from nanoindentation were fed into a computational framework to determine the mechanical behavior of the stingers during penetration. The computation results predicted the penetration angle of +10° for the wasp stinger and −6° for the honeybee stinger, which mimics the practical insertion mechanism of both stingers. Based on this understanding, a wasp and honeybee stringer inspired micro syringe-needle design has also been proposed.
Highlights
Some of the arthropods sting into prey and release a venom in them and are classified as stingers
The structure, nanomechanical properties and functionalities of wasp and honeybee stingers have been investigated through experimentation and numerical modelling
The quasi-static nanoindentation instrument evaluates the biomechanical properties of wasp and honeybee stingers
Summary
Rakesh Das[1], Ram Naresh Yadav[1], Praveer Sihota[1], Piyush Uniyal[1], Navin Kumar1 & Bharat Bhushan 2. Static nanomechanical properties mapping of the wasp and honeybee stingers, structure, and the mechanical behavior during penetration have been studied. The average elastic modulus and hardness and their mapping on the surface along the longitudinal and cross sectional directions of the stingers have been obtained The structures of these stingers have been analyzed using a 3D-micro computed tomography technique. To perform the quasi-static nanoindentation at the cross section of the stingers, the stingers were vertically embedded within a small semisolid epoxy block where the tip was placed inside the epoxy and the base was kept just outside the top surface of the epoxy block Samples of both the wasp and honeybee stingers were prepared in that way and their cross sections were observed using an SPM attached with the nanoindentation instrument. The simulation was performed applying the same procedures as mentioned before
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