Remarkable Natural Material Surfaces and Their Engineering Potential

From rice to lotus leaves to dragonfly wings, this book explores a variety of natural surfaces, their scientific characteristics, and their unique engineering potential, demonstrating that engineering applications can be found in unexpected places.

This book explores a collection of natural surfaces, their scientific characteristics and their unique engineering potential demonstrating that engineering applications can be found in unexpected places. The surfaces covered range from botanical ones, like rice and lotus leaves, to insect surfaces, like butterfly and dragonfly wings. The variety of surfaces and numerous engineering potentials described show how biomimicry can be utilized to solve countless realworld problems.

Discusses natural surfaces in a format that is accessible to less technical readers Contains material on natural surfaces that can be found locally Encourages readers to explore the engineering value of the natural surfaces surrounding them Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext
Michelle Lee is at the McCormick School of Engineering of Northwestern University.

Inhalt

Blood Clots and Vascular Networks: Self-Healing Materials.- Shark Skin: Taking a Bite Out of Bacteria.- Mother-of-Pearl: An Engineering Gem.- Diatoms: Glass Ornaments of the Earth's Waters.- Lotus Leaves: Humble Beauties.- Dragonfly Wings: Special Structures for Aerial Acrobatics.- Moth Eyes: A New Vision for Light-Harnessing Efficiency.- Botanical Leaves: Groovy Terrain.- Snake Skin: Small Scales With a Large Scale Impact.- Gecko Pads: A Force to Be Reckoned With.- Butterfly Wings: Nature's Fluttering Kaleidoscope.- Frog Skin: A Giant Leap for Engineering Applications.- Spider Silk: A Sticky Situation.