Cargando…
Tensegrity Modelling and the High Toughness of Spider Dragline Silk
This work establishes a tensegrity model of spider dragline silk. Tensegrity systems are ubiquitous in nature, being able to capture the mechanics of biological shapes through simple and effective modes of deformation via extension and contraction. Guided by quantitative microstructural characteriza...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7466511/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32752054 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano10081510 |
_version_ | 1783577830425100288 |
---|---|
author | Fraternali, Fernando Stehling, Nicola Amendola, Ada Tiban Anrango, Bryan Andres Holland, Chris Rodenburg, Cornelia |
author_facet | Fraternali, Fernando Stehling, Nicola Amendola, Ada Tiban Anrango, Bryan Andres Holland, Chris Rodenburg, Cornelia |
author_sort | Fraternali, Fernando |
collection | PubMed |
description | This work establishes a tensegrity model of spider dragline silk. Tensegrity systems are ubiquitous in nature, being able to capture the mechanics of biological shapes through simple and effective modes of deformation via extension and contraction. Guided by quantitative microstructural characterization via air plasma etching and low voltage scanning electron microscopy, we report that this model is able to capture experimentally observed phenomena such as the Poisson effect, tensile stress-strain response, and fibre toughness. This is achieved by accounting for spider silks’ hierarchical organization into microfibrils with radially variable properties. Each fibril is described as a chain of polypeptide tensegrity units formed by crystalline granules operating under compression, which are connected to each other by amorphous links acting under tension. Our results demonstrate, for the first time, that a radial variability in the ductility of tensegrity chains is responsible for high fibre toughness, a defining and desirable feature of spider silk. Based on this model, a discussion about the use of graded tensegrity structures for the optimal design of next-generation biomimetic fibres is presented. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7466511 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-74665112020-09-14 Tensegrity Modelling and the High Toughness of Spider Dragline Silk Fraternali, Fernando Stehling, Nicola Amendola, Ada Tiban Anrango, Bryan Andres Holland, Chris Rodenburg, Cornelia Nanomaterials (Basel) Article This work establishes a tensegrity model of spider dragline silk. Tensegrity systems are ubiquitous in nature, being able to capture the mechanics of biological shapes through simple and effective modes of deformation via extension and contraction. Guided by quantitative microstructural characterization via air plasma etching and low voltage scanning electron microscopy, we report that this model is able to capture experimentally observed phenomena such as the Poisson effect, tensile stress-strain response, and fibre toughness. This is achieved by accounting for spider silks’ hierarchical organization into microfibrils with radially variable properties. Each fibril is described as a chain of polypeptide tensegrity units formed by crystalline granules operating under compression, which are connected to each other by amorphous links acting under tension. Our results demonstrate, for the first time, that a radial variability in the ductility of tensegrity chains is responsible for high fibre toughness, a defining and desirable feature of spider silk. Based on this model, a discussion about the use of graded tensegrity structures for the optimal design of next-generation biomimetic fibres is presented. MDPI 2020-07-31 /pmc/articles/PMC7466511/ /pubmed/32752054 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano10081510 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Fraternali, Fernando Stehling, Nicola Amendola, Ada Tiban Anrango, Bryan Andres Holland, Chris Rodenburg, Cornelia Tensegrity Modelling and the High Toughness of Spider Dragline Silk |
title | Tensegrity Modelling and the High Toughness of Spider Dragline Silk |
title_full | Tensegrity Modelling and the High Toughness of Spider Dragline Silk |
title_fullStr | Tensegrity Modelling and the High Toughness of Spider Dragline Silk |
title_full_unstemmed | Tensegrity Modelling and the High Toughness of Spider Dragline Silk |
title_short | Tensegrity Modelling and the High Toughness of Spider Dragline Silk |
title_sort | tensegrity modelling and the high toughness of spider dragline silk |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7466511/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32752054 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano10081510 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT fraternalifernando tensegritymodellingandthehightoughnessofspiderdraglinesilk AT stehlingnicola tensegritymodellingandthehightoughnessofspiderdraglinesilk AT amendolaada tensegritymodellingandthehightoughnessofspiderdraglinesilk AT tibananrangobryanandres tensegritymodellingandthehightoughnessofspiderdraglinesilk AT hollandchris tensegritymodellingandthehightoughnessofspiderdraglinesilk AT rodenburgcornelia tensegritymodellingandthehightoughnessofspiderdraglinesilk |