The Ingenious Structure of Scorpion Armor Inspires Sand-Resistant Surfaces

Abstract

Erosion is so widespread and undesirable in various engineering applications such that it is so incumbent to find anti-erosion means to address it. In previous researches (Han et al. in J Bionic Eng 7(09):S50–S58, 2010; J Wuhan Univ Technol Mater Sci Ed 26(2):305–310, 2011; Langmuir 28(5):2914–2921, 2012; Adv Colloid Interface Sci 234:27–50, 2016; Surf Coat Technol 313:143–150, 2017; Zhang et al. in Adv Mater Sci Eng 2013(5):1–9, 2013), people found that the surface of desert scorpion Androctonus australis, which belonged to the parabuthus, had very complex microstructures that had the strong anti-erosion qualities in the blown sand environment. Here, through further research, a new microstructure, hexagonal pit structure, was firstly discovered on the back of desert scorpion. These microstructures were applied in the design of biomimetic samples, which were fabricated by 3D printer using EOS stainless steel GP1. These biomimetic samples were used to test the erosion rate under the impact of quartz sand of three different sizes. The experiment was carried out using a blasting jet machine with injection angle, velocity and time of 30°, 25 ms−1 and 90 s, respectively, and the results showed that the biomimetic samples with different microstructures had better anti-erosion performance. The hexagonal pit structure, whose depth was 200–300 μm and the length was 200–500 μm, had also good anti-erosion performance. The physical model was established to express the mechanism of anti-erosion by controlling the motion direction and impacting velocity of the particles. The anti-erosion performance of all these biomimetic samples can be quantified by the erosion rate and improvement rate. On the whole, these microstructures all have good anti-erosion effect; hence, this paper research is of great practical significance.