A Mesoscale Tensegrity Model of Spider Dragline Silk Fiber

Abstract

Tensegrity concepts are common in nature and are recognizable, e.g., in every cell, in the microstructure of the spider silk, and in the pattern of bones and tendons for control of locomotion. This work deals with the formulation of a tensegrity model of spider dragline silk fiber at the mesoscale through a multi-domain network approach with tensegrity architecture. The fiber is described as a multi-walled tube formed by coaxial cylindrical networks of beta-sheet crystals (crystalline domains) and polypeptide (amorphous) chains (noncrystalline domains). The given model generalizes a previous one recently appeared in the literature and paves the way to the optimal design of innovative biomimetic fibers with tensegrity architecture.