Studies on the Geometrical Design of Spider Webs for Reinforced Composite Structures
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The presented manuscript entitled " Study on Geometrical Design of Spider Web for Reinforced Composite Structure" by Y. Regassa, H. Lemu, B. Sirabiyuh, and S. Rahimeto consists is devoted to the measurement of geometrical dimensions of spider webs. It consists of 5 sections and a list of references. The first section contains the base information about the possible methods of measurement of geometrical dimensions of spider webs with the use of image processing procedures. In the second section, there are discussed the current state of the art concerning the structure and properties of the silk fibers and the spider webs. In the third section, the applied measurement procedure is described. In the fourth section, the obtained results are presented and discussed. The fifth section contains conclusions. The list of references consists of 20 items.
Critical remarks:
1. In the text of the manuscript there is no information about the equipment (cameras, lens, etc), which was used in order to prepare the pictures of analyzed spider webs.
2. The very important problem connected with the measurement based on photos is the proper calbration of the camera or cameras. In the text of the manuscript, there are no comments if the different kinds of lens distortions were corrected during the calibration process. The preparation of appropriate photos of the spider webs demands the use of a high-quality lens, where these phenomena are reduced as far as it is possible. Otherwise, the further conducted measurement of the geometrical dimensions will be burdened with a large error.
3. The used MATLAB procedure should be detailed discussed. From the text of the third section is not clear if the used measurement procedure is the standard MATLAB functionality or the special procedure is created by the authors.
4. Some pictures are of rather low quality. For example, in figure 2b the numbers, even significantly enlarged, are still not readable.
5. The contents of the manuscript should be rather treated as the report from the measurement. In the conclusions, there is no information on the unusual mechanical properties of spider webs, which can be potentially mimic in the real engineering structures.
Taking into account the mentioned above remarks I recommend this manuscript for major revision and re-review.
Author Response
Please refer to attached file.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors evaluated geometrical features for orb species made spider web. The geometrical analysis for physical data extraction of point to point distance, radial/mesh size and variation among them, and total spiral size and opening angle from x-axis are discussed. The study is intended to be used such nature-inspired design as a basis for fiber orientation to composite engineering in design of an optimized composite structure.
This is an interesting study and the topic is very attractive. This Reviewer has a few recommendations to enhance the quality of the manuscript:
- Considering that the end applications is fiber reinforced composite structures, then the Introduction becomes incomplete. Please provide it and cite some recent works on composites that could make use of your technology. I recommend: i) Improving the open-hole tension characteristics with variable-axial composite laminates: Optimization, progressive damage modeling and experimental observations; ii) Optimizing Variable-Axial Fiber-Reinforced Composite Laminates: The Direct Fiber Path Optimization Concept; iii) Creep and Residual Properties of Filament-Wound Composite Rings under Radial Compression in Harsh Environments; iv) Reliability-based buckling optimization with an accelerated Kriging metamodel for filament-wound variable angle tow composite cylinders. Those are different applications that could make good use of your technology to generate stiffer and stronger composite structures.
- How realistic and handy would be to generate a numerical model from CT scans?
- By the way, why did you not generate finite element models from your measurements? They could be very helpful.
- What kind of reinforcing fiber could be used in such webs towards developing high-performance composite structures?
- How about the applications and main advantages of such composite spider webs?
Author Response
Please refer to attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Even if the algorithm developped in Matlab to measure the geometrical properties of the spider webs is not described in the manuscript, I propose that the manuscript is suitable for a publication in J. Compos. Sci.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
In my opinion, the changes which have been introduced in the text of the manuscript are still not satisfactory.
First of all, it seems that only in the case of quality of figure 2 has been improved. The others, for example, figure 3,4,5,6, 8, 9 are still of low quality.
Secondly, in the text of the manuscript, there is added information only about the photo equipment which was used (Infinix Note 7 Lite smartphone camera). However, there is still no information about the calibration procedure.
Thirdly, a description of the used procedure of measurement of the spider web dimensions is no complite. For me personally the following sentence:
'Calculation of the actual dimensions to pixel ratio by measuring the background distance and the pixel dimensions'. is not understandable.
Finally, the additional text, which is added in the conclusion section, should be rather placed in the section where the present state of the art is discussed.
Therefore in my opinion the presented manuscript text is still not suitable for publication.
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors implemented all my recommendations and therefore the manuscript is now suitable for publication.
