Reducing Automotive Cooling System Complexity through an Adaptive Biomimetic Air Control Valve.

Future automotive mobility is predominantly electric. Compared to existing systems, the requirements of subsystems change. Air flow for cooling components is needed predominantly when the car is in rest (i.e., charging) or at slow speeds. So far, actively driven fans consuming power and generating noise are used in this case. Here we propose a passive adaptive system allowing for convection-driven cooling. The developed system is a highly adaptive flat valve derived from the bordered pit. It was developed through an iterative design process including simulations, both structural and thermodynamic. In hardwoods and conifers, bordered pits enable the challenging transport of vertical fluids by locally limiting damage. Depending on the structure, these can close at sudden pressure changes and take the function of valves. The result of the biomimetic abstraction process is a system-integrative, low-profile valve that is cheap to produce, long-lasting, lightweight, maintenance-free, and noise-free. It allows for the passive switching of air flow generation at the heat exchanger of the cooling between natural convection or an active airstream without the need for complex sensing and control systems. The geometric and material design factors allow for the simple tuning of the valve to the desired switching conditions during the design process.

Determination of the Young's modulus of the epicuticle of the smooth adhesive organs of Carausius morosus using tensile testing.

Adhesive organs like arolia of insects allow these animals to climb on different substrates by creating high adhesion forces. According to the Dahlquist criterion, adhesive organs must be very soft, exhibiting an effective Young's modulus of below 100 kPa to adhere well to substrates. Such a low effective Young's modulus allows the adhesive organs to make almost direct contact with the substrate and results in van der Waals forces along with capillary forces. In previous studies, the effective Young's moduli of adhesive organs were determined using indentation tests, revealing their structure to be very soft. However, adhesive organs show a layered structure, thus the measured values comprise the effective Young's moduli of several layers of the adhesive organs. In this study, a new approach is illustrated to measure the Young's modulus of the outermost layer of the arolium, i.e. of the epicuticle, of the stick insect Carausius morosus. As a result of the epicuticle being supported by upright fibres, tensile tests allow the determination of the Young's modulus of the epicuticle with hardly influence from subjacent layers. In our tensile tests, arolia of stick insects adhering on a latex membrane were stretched by stretching the membrane while the elongation of the contact area between an arolium and the membrane was recorded. For analysis, mathematical models of the mechanical system were developed. When fed with the observed elongations, these models yield estimates for the Young's modulus of the epicuticle of approximately 100 MPa. Thus, in arolia, a very thin layer (~225 nm) of a rather stiff material, which is less susceptible to abrasion, makes contact with the substrates, whereas the inner fibrous structure of arolia is responsible for their softness.

Surface microstructures of daisy florets (Asteraceae) and characterization of their anisotropic wetting.

The surface microstructures on ray florets of 62 species were characterized and compared with modern phylogenetic data of species affiliation in Asteraceae to determine sculptural patterns and their occurrence in the tribes of Asteraceae. Their wettability was studied to identify structural-induced droplet adhesion, which can be used for the development of artificial surfaces for water harvesting and passive surface water transport. The wettability was characterized by contact angle (CA) and tilt angle measurements, performed on fresh ray florets and their epoxy resin replica. The CAs on ray florets varied between 104° and 156°, but water droplets did not roll off when surface was tilted at 90°. Elongated cell structures and cuticle folding orientated in the same direction as the cell elongation caused capillary forces, leading to anisotropic wetting, with extension of water droplets along the length axis of epidermis cells. The strongest elongation of the droplets was also supported by a parallel, cell-overlapping cuticle striation. In artificial surfaces made of epoxy replica of ray florets, this effect was enhanced. The distribution of the identified four structural types exhibits a strong phylogenetic signal and allows the inference of an evolutionary trend in the modification of floret epidermal cells.