| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2020 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Biological Materials Science
|
| Presentation Title |
Biomimetic Design Principles for Honeycomb Design: A Comparative Study of Honeybee and Wasp Nest Geometry |
| Author(s) |
Derek Goss, Clint Penick, Alex Grishin, Sridhar Niverty, Dhruv Bhate, Nikhilesh Chawla |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Derek Goss |
| Abstract Scope |
The hexagonal honeycomb has been an object of interest for over two millennia, and it is one of the most direct forms of biomimetic design today. The hexagon is, however, not unique to the European honeybee, and is a shape that appears in insect nests of other bees and wasps. There is little research that compares the geometry of these nests, which is the primary objective of this work. Insect nests from over 70 different species were obtained and scanned using structured white light microscopy. Three metrics: cell diameter, wall thickness, and corner radius, were measured for each of these nests, and the resulting data analyzed for trends. Environmental and phylogenetic factors were also studied. Analytical models derived from beam theory, Finite Element Analysis, and experimental testing, were leveraged to help interpret the observed results, and suggest biomimetic principles for use in future honeycomb design for engineering applications. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: Supplemental Proceedings volume |