Studies on the Geometrical Design of Spider Webs for Reinforced Composite Structures

Yohannes Regassa,Samuel Rahimeto,Hirpa G Lemu,Belete Sirabizuh

doi:10.3390/jcs5020057

Abstract

Spider silk is an astonishingly tough biomaterial that consists almost entirely of large proteins. Studying the secrets behind the high strength nature of spider webs is very challenging due to their miniature size. In spite of their complex nature, researchers have always been inspired to mimic Nature for developing new products or enhancing the performance of existing technologies. Accordingly, the spider web can be taken as a model for optimal fiber orientation for composite materials to be used in critical structural applications. In this study an attempt is made to analyze the geometrical characteristics of the web construction building units such as spirals and radials. As a measurement tool, we have used a developed MATLAB algorithm code for measuring the node to node of rings and radials angle of orientation. Spider web image samples were collected randomly from an ecological niche with black background sample collection tools. The study shows that the radial angle of orientation is 12.7 degrees with 5 mm distance for the spirals’ mesh size. The extracted geometrical numeric values from the spider web show moderately skewed statistical data. The study sheds light on spider web utilization to develop an optimized fiber orientation reinforced composite structure for constructing, for instance, shell structures, pressure vessels and fuselage cones for the aviation industry.

Highlights

The co-evolution of spider web arrangements and silks began about 400 million years ago, at first possibly as a protein cover to protect the animal’s eggs and young
Mimicking the silk production of a spider requires copying its silk extrusion and spinning system; for manufacturing silks ‘the spider’ way, we need atomic force microscopy that provides information about the surface of silks, and polarizing microscopy that informs about the internal order of silk structures that can accelerate the research on decoding the secrets behind spider netting
Spider silk as a natural fiber has long been recognized as a wonder fiber for its unique combination of high strength and elongation before rupture

Summary

Introduction

The co-evolution of spider web arrangements and silks began about 400 million years ago, at first possibly as a protein cover to protect the animal’s eggs and young. Webs evolved different functions, including acting as a wallpaper for the animals’ tunnels and modifying holes into simple traps by radiating triplines that inform the lurking spider about things beetling around outside. For the sake of survival in different situations, spiders have adjusted and changed their web architecture by providing casing, guards, and an efficient tool for trapping prey [1]. The web of spiders is composed of radial and spiral threads each with their own characteristics. Spider webs are a distinctive example of high-performance bio-material design in Nature

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