Sounds all sciency and intellectual
doesn’t it? But it’s been done for hundreds of years. Leonardo De Vinci designed a plane after studying the way birds fly in 1505, nearly 400 years before the first glider took to the skies.The actual term comes from the Greek words “bios” meaning life, and “mimesis” meaning to imitate. So we look at life and nature around us and try to copy the best bits.
Animals, plants and insects in nature have evolved over
billions of years to develop more efficient solutions, such as
superhydrophobicity, self cleaning, self repair, energy conservation, drag
reduction, dry adhesion, adaptive growth and so on, than comparable man-made
solutions to date. Many people have solved problems by studying to understand the
way nature copes with it. From swim suits and aircraft fuselage copying the way
shark skin is formed and so helping improve efficiency and speed, to looking at
the way termites keep their towering nests ventilated and copying this in high
rise buildings to give them super-efficient ventilations systems that claim to
use a 10th of the energy required to control a similar sized
conventional building. There are many examples of problems that have been
solved by studying the way nature deals with it.
In the field of textiles we see developments coming through
all the time –
·
The lotus effect refers to the very high
water repellence (superhydrophobicity) exhibited by the leaves of the lotus
flower. Dirt particles are picked up by water droplets due to a complex micro-
and nanoscopic architecture of the surface, which minimizes adhesion. Some technologists
have developed treatments and coatings for fabrics and other surfaces that can
stay dry and clean themselves in the same way as the lotus leaf.
·
Velcro
– arguably the best known of all. According to the story, George de Mestral,
the Swiss inventor went for a walk in the fields with his dog. When he return,
he noticed burrs stuck to his dog's fur. Upon closer inspection of the burrs,
de Mestral discovered their hook-like construction, which led to his invention
of the hook and loop fastener, Velcro
· The pine
cone effect- This is another example where biomimicry has been used to
bring something new to the market. Working on the principle of a pine cone
where it opens when in dry conditions and closes when in wet this has been
applied to fibres to aid the moisture management in fabrics where there are
changes in their micro-climate and therefore improving comfort for the user.
·
Shark
skin – Humans are not efficient swimmers, for their shapes are not well suited to rapid travel through
water. Swimming style is vital to a swimmer's speed, but beyond that, it is
important to lower the skin friction drag experienced by swimmers. The movement
of sharks in water, and in particular, the structure of their skin, has been of
interest. The skin of most types of sharks is covered by tiny hard tooth-like
three-dimensional scales, also called dermal denticles. The denticles have very
fine and equi-spaced ridges and are aligned along the body axis. These tiny
riblets of denticles vary in terms of number, size and shape depending on the
sharks’ age and species. This lead to the ultimate focus of research studies in
finding a way to imitate the surface of shark skin. Probably, the most
well-known application of riblet surface morphology is in Fastskin swimwear
technology (Speedo, Inc.). It was reportedly claimed that a 7.5 per cent
reduction in drag would be experienced by the swimmer as a result of wearing
the suit
And so the list could go on. Nature provides us with a huge amount
of techniques to build with fibres to achieve specific goals, and there is
tremendous potential to learn from it. Understanding the structure and function
relationships is key in developing textile products that are, for example,
adaptive, thermo-resistant, superhydrophobic, or self-healing, examples of
which are plentiful in nature. The obvious need for sustainability requires not
just mimicking natural design but also mimicking the process.
