Malak Makki - Al-Jazeera.net
What is the link between the wings of butterflies and the engineering sector? At first glance, the reader imagines that butterflies are beautiful light beings, which poets and dreamers only sing, but recent scientific studies try to invest in understanding the mechanism of butterflies in addressing water droplets in order to develop water-insulating materials that can be used in many different sectors.
Raindrops and fragile objects
Biological and environmental engineer Sunjun Joong, from Cornell University in New York State, says the most dangerous accident for small animals is hitting water droplets.
Jung explains that the effect of a drop of water dropping into fragile little creatures is not only related to the force of the impact, but also affects the speed of flying insects and the warmth of their bodies. So the length of time the water droplets stick to animal bodies is a critical factor for many of them.
The research team, which includes Jung, Songho Kim, and other researchers, studied the mechanism of some animals and plants in facing the potential danger of raindrops.
The research team used a high-speed camera to monitor the effect of water on the bodies of some animals, including: the butterfly, the insect insect, and the dragonfly, the last of the fastest insects in the world, and the feathers of a geek bird, a seabird belonging to the swan family, and the leaves of the Katsura tree.
Spines and nanoparticles
It is mentioned that previous studies focused on similar monitoring mechanisms for water droplets of lower speed than real raindrops, which can reach ten meters per second.
However, in this study published in the BNES journal on June 5, entitled "How do water droplets break down on biological surfaces?", The research team threw objects with high-speed drops and recorded various observable dynamics.
The research team observed that raindrops on foliage or butterfly wings hit microscopic thorns.
This creates waves, intertwined with each other, in water droplets that take a curly shape during their spread, and with different thicknesses depending on their size. Microscopic thorns on the surfaces of the wings allow the water droplets to pierce and tear them into very small parts.
The researchers found that the natural surfaces of these organisms contain a very small layer of wax (on the nano scale) that helps counteract water droplets, which, in conjunction with the fragmentation of droplets, reduces the period of time the water droplets stick to the surfaces to more than 70%.
On the other hand, this leads to a decrease in the temperature of animals and their rapid transmission. And it affects, in a large way, some insects that need to maintain their temperature or warm their muscles in order to be able to fly and escape from predators.
Jung explains that the presence of these rough jagged protrusions or thorns and the wax layer on the bodies of these organisms explain the ability of these organisms to counteract water droplets.
Nature-inspired materials
Researcher Jung says this study is the first to understand the effect of ultra-fast water droplets on natural or hydrophobic surfaces.
Understanding the process of tackling microscopic thorns on the wings of butterflies with water droplets helps engineers develop water-insulating materials inspired by mechanisms or mechanics found in nature, just as water-resistant clothing was made with mechanisms inspired by lotus leaf.
As Jung says, "there is a market and a wide sector for using this type of roof," but "the biggest challenge to engineering such products with these materials lies in providing their durability."