Filippov, Alexander E. and Gorb, Stanislav (2015) Spatial model of the gecko foot hair: functional significance of highly specialized non-uniform geometry. Interface Focus, 5 (1). DOI 10.1098/rsfs.2014.0065.

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Abstract

One of the important problems appearing in experimental realizations of artificial adhesives inspired by gecko foot hair is so-called clusterization. If an artificially produced structure is flexible enough to allow efficient contact with natural rough surfaces, after a few attachment-detachment cycles, the fibres of the structure tend to adhere one to another and form clusters. Normally, such clusters are much larger than original fibres and, because they are less flexible, form much worse adhesive contacts especially with the rough surfaces. Main problem here is that the forces responsible for the clusterization are the same intermolecular forces which attract fibres to fractal surface of the substrate. However, arrays of real gecko setae are much less susceptible to this problem. One of the possible reasons for this is that ends of the seta have more sophisticated non-uniformly distributed three-dimensional structure than that of existing artificial systems. In this paper, we simulated three-dimensional spatial geometry of non-uniformly distributed branches of nanofibres of the setal tip numerically, studied its attachment-detachment dynamics and discussed its advantages versus uniformly distributed geometry.

Document Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Times Cited: 3
Keywords:	clusterization, fibrillar adhesives, gecko seta, biological adhesives, bioadhesion
Research affiliation:	OceanRep > The Future Ocean - Cluster of Excellence > FO-R03 Kiel University Kiel University > Kiel Marine Science OceanRep > The Future Ocean - Cluster of Excellence
Refereed:	Yes
Open Access Journal?:	No
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Projects:	Future Ocean
Date Deposited:	20 Oct 2016 10:52
Last Modified:	23 Sep 2019 23:07
URI:	https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/32473

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