Skip to main content
Advertisement

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About JEB
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Outstanding paper prize
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contact JEB
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
    • For library administrators
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Experimental Biology
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

supporting biologistsinspiring biology

Journal of Experimental Biology

  • Log in
Advanced search

RSS  Twitter  Facebook  YouTube  

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About JEB
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Outstanding paper prize
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contact JEB
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
    • For library administrators
Research Article
The impact behaviour of silk cocoons
Fujia Chen, Thomas Hesselberg, David Porter, Fritz Vollrath
Journal of Experimental Biology 2013 216: 2648-2657; doi: 10.1242/jeb.082545
Fujia Chen
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Park Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Thomas Hesselberg
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Park Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
David Porter
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Park Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: david.porter@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Fritz Vollrath
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Park Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & tables
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF
Loading

SUMMARY

Silk cocoons, constructed by silkmoths (Lepidoptera), are protective structural composites. Some cocoons appear to have evolved towards structural and material optimisation in order to sustain impact strikes from predators and hinder parasite ingress. This study investigates the protective properties of silk cocoons with different morphologies by evaluating their impact resistance and damage tolerance. Finite element analysis was used to analyse empirical observations of the quasi-static impact response of the silk cocoons, and to evaluate the separate benefits of the structures and materials through the deformation and damage mechanism. We use design principles from composite engineering in order to understand the structure–property–function relationship of silkworm cocoons. Understanding the highly evolved survival strategies of the organisms building natural cocoons will hopefully lead to inspiration that in turn could lead to improved composite design.

FOOTNOTES

  • AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

    F.C. conceived the study, executed the experiments and the data analysis, and wrote the main body of the text. T.H. constructed the cocoon model and performed the FEA simulations. D.P. developed the material models for simulations from experimental data. F.V. provided the biological background for the study and revised the text.

  • COMPETING INTERESTS

    No competing interests declared.

  • FUNDING

    This work was supported by The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (grant number F49620-03-1-0111 to F.C.), the Intra-European Marie Curie Fellowship for Career Development (project number 234818, to T.H.) and the European Research Council (grant number SP2-GA-2008-233409 to D.P. and F.V.).

  • © 2013. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
View Full Text
Previous ArticleNext Article
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

This Issue

Keywords

  • Silk
  • composite
  • silk moth
  • Finite element analysis
  • deformation

 Download PDF

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Journal of Experimental Biology.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The impact behaviour of silk cocoons
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Journal of Experimental Biology
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Journal of Experimental Biology web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Research Article
The impact behaviour of silk cocoons
Fujia Chen, Thomas Hesselberg, David Porter, Fritz Vollrath
Journal of Experimental Biology 2013 216: 2648-2657; doi: 10.1242/jeb.082545
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Research Article
The impact behaviour of silk cocoons
Fujia Chen, Thomas Hesselberg, David Porter, Fritz Vollrath
Journal of Experimental Biology 2013 216: 2648-2657; doi: 10.1242/jeb.082545

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Alerts

Please log in to add an alert for this article.

Sign in to email alerts with your email address

Article navigation

  • Top
  • Article
    • SUMMARY
    • INTRODUCTION
    • MATERIALS AND METHODS
    • RESULTS
    • DISCUSSION
    • FOOTNOTES
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & tables
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF

Related articles

Cited by...

More in this TOC section

  • Responses of Manduca sexta larvae to heat waves
  • Heat hardening in a pair of Anolis lizards: constraints, dynamics and ecological consequences
  • Polarization contrasts and their effect on the gaze stabilization of crustaceans
Show more RESEARCH ARTICLES

Similar articles

Other journals from The Company of Biologists

Development

Journal of Cell Science

Disease Models & Mechanisms

Biology Open

Advertisement

Predicting the Future: Species Survival in a Changing World

Read our new special issue exploring the significant role of experimental biology in assessing and predicting the susceptibility or resilience of species to future, human-induced environmental change.


Big Biology Podcast - Hollie Putnam and coral bleaching

Catch the next JEB-sponsored episode of the Big Biology Podcast where Art and Marty talk to Hollie Putnam about the causes of coral bleaching and the basic biology of corals in the hope of selectively breeding corals that can better tolerate future ocean conditions.

Read Hollie's Review on the subject, which is featured in our current special issue. 


Stark trade-offs and elegant solutions in arthropod visual systems

Many elegant eye specializations that evolved in response to visual challenges continue to be discovered. A new Review by Meece et al. summarises exciting solutions evolved by insects and other arthropods in response to specific visual challenges.


Head bobbing gives pigeons a sense of perspective

Pigeons might look goofy with their head-bobbing walk, but it turns out that the ungainly head manoeuvre allows the birds to judge distance.

Articles

  • Accepted manuscripts
  • Issue in progress
  • Latest complete issue
  • Issue archive
  • Archive by article type
  • Special issues
  • Subject collections
  • Interviews
  • Sign up for alerts

About us

  • About JEB
  • Editors and Board
  • Editor biographies
  • Travelling Fellowships
  • Grants and funding
  • Journal Meetings
  • Workshops
  • The Company of Biologists
  • Journal news

For Authors

  • Submit a manuscript
  • Aims and scope
  • Presubmission enquiries
  • Article types
  • Manuscript preparation
  • Cover suggestions
  • Editorial process
  • Promoting your paper
  • Open Access
  • Outstanding paper prize
  • Biology Open transfer

Journal Info

  • Journal policies
  • Rights and permissions
  • Media policies
  • Reviewer guide
  • Sign up for alerts

Contact

  • Contact JEB
  • Subscriptions
  • Advertising
  • Feedback

 Twitter   YouTube   LinkedIn

© 2021   The Company of Biologists Ltd   Registered Charity 277992