A Theoretical Characterization of Curvature Controlled Adhesive Properties of Bio-Inspired Membranes
1
Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Politecnico of Bari, Bari 70126, Italy
2
Department of Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, Zoological Institute, Kiel University, Kiel 24118, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Present Address: Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark, NanoSYD Alsion 2, 6400 Sønderborg, Denmark.
‡
Present Address: Department of Wood Materials Science, Institute for Building Materials, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, Zürich CH-8093, Switzerland.
Academic Editor: Ille C. Gebeshuber
Biomimetics 2016, 1(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics1010003
Received: 14 January 2016
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Revised: 31 March 2016
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Accepted: 13 April 2016
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Published: 19 April 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro- and Nano-Structured Bio-Inspired Surfaces)
Some biological systems, such as the tree frog, Litoria caerulea, and the bush-cricket, Tettigonia viridissima, have developed the ability to control adhesion by changing the curvature of their pads. Active control systems of adhesion inspired by these biological models can be very attractive for the development of devices with controllable adhesive properties. In this paper, we present a theory describing the adhesive behavior of an artificial system consisting of an inflatable membrane clamped to a metallic cylinder and filled with air. In such a system, by controlling the internal pressure acting on the membrane, it is possible to modulate the adhesive strength. In particular, an increase of the internal pressure and, hence, the curvature of the membrane, results in a decrease of the pull-off force. Results predicted by the theoretical model are in good agreement with experimental data. The model explains the apparent contradictory results observed for the thick membrane with zero curvature. In fact, in this case, large pull-off forces should be expected, but zero values are measured due to an initial small misalignment between indenter and membrane, which is not possible to control with precision during the experiments. The present model might help to achieve a better understanding of the adhesion behavior of biological systems and of the fingertips that, in a broad sense, may be regarded as shell-like structures.
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Keywords:
adhesion; biomimetics; energy release rate; elastic membranes
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MDPI and ACS Style
Afferante, L.; Heepe, L.; Casdorff, K.; Gorb, S.N.; Carbone, G. A Theoretical Characterization of Curvature Controlled Adhesive Properties of Bio-Inspired Membranes. Biomimetics 2016, 1, 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics1010003
AMA Style
Afferante L, Heepe L, Casdorff K, Gorb SN, Carbone G. A Theoretical Characterization of Curvature Controlled Adhesive Properties of Bio-Inspired Membranes. Biomimetics. 2016; 1(1):3. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics1010003
Chicago/Turabian StyleAfferante, Luciano, Lars Heepe, Kirstin Casdorff, Stanislav N. Gorb, and Giuseppe Carbone. 2016. "A Theoretical Characterization of Curvature Controlled Adhesive Properties of Bio-Inspired Membranes" Biomimetics 1, no. 1: 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics1010003
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