Biomimetic engineering of tailored, ultra-lightweight fibrous composites

Today fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) are well established in manifold technical applications, because they provide advantages such as low weight, high stiffness, high strength and chemical resistance. The broad range of production methods starts from cost effective mass production up to the manufacturing of ultra-lightweight composite parts. Biological materials are also usually composite materials: Higher plants or bones of higher animals are hierarchically organized and are composed of only a few materials such as lignin, cellulose, apatite and collagen. The large variety and the mechanical properties of natural tissues results primarily from an optimized fiber lay-up to adapt to the mechanical requirements of the respective “installation circumstances”. Advanced lightweight technical solutions need strong materials and structurally optimized structures. In many industries, the structural optimization by an appropriate fiber lay-up has become an important method to save more weight. Corresponding software tools help to optimize topology/shape (e.g. Mattheck: CAO/SKO, Co. Altair: Optistruct), mainly using finite element analyzing technology. The combination of strong lightweight materials, optimized topology and sophisticated fiber lay-up is also present in many bio-mineralized planktonic shells — for instance diatoms and radiolaria—but also in glass sponges. Following it is shown, how the high weight-related mechanical properties of plankton are biomimetically transferred into ultra-lightweight technical structures