Spider silk is one of the strongest and most fascinating materials known to science, and researchers are working to design it synthetically.
A team of scientists developed a systematic approach that looked at the material's structure; they then employed computational modeling and mechanical analysis to 3D-print synthetic spider webs, MIT reported.
"This is the first methodical exploration of its kind," said Professor Markus Buehler, head of MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), and the lead author of a paper appearing this week in Nature Communications. "We are looking to expand our knowledge of the function of natural webs in a systematic and repeatable manner."
The study revealed a strong relationship between spider web structure, loading points, and failure mechanisms. This distribution of material allows spiders to make the web strong enough to hold even relatively large prey.The team used orb-weaver spider webs as a model for their 3-D designs.
"We are on the way to quantifying the mechanism that makes the spider's web so strong," said CEE research scientist Zhao Qin.
The findings showed webs consisting of uniform thread diameters were best suited for taking force at a single point, such as a tasty flying insect smashing into it. On the other hand, nonuniform diameter webs can handle more widespread pressure, such as a rain storm.
In the future the researchers plan to look at the dynamic aspects of webs by conducting controlled impact and vibration experiments.
