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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Fraternali, Fernando, Stehling, Nicola, Amendola, Ada, Tiban Anrango, Bryan Andres, Holland, Chris, Rodenburg, Cornelia
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