Biomimetic Design and Manufacturing of Anti-Erosion Functional Surfaces Inspired from Desert Scorpion

Abstract

Sand erosion is a phenomenon that solid particles impinging to a wall cause serious mechanical damages to its surface. It's tough to be a machine in the desert: particles of dirt and sand work their way into moving parts, where they abrade helicopter propellers, airplane rotor blades, pipes and other equipments. However, the desert scorpion (Androctonus australis) live their entire lives subjected to blowing sand, yet they never appear to be eroded. In this study, the anti–erosion characteristic rules of the scorpion surfaces under aerodynamics effect of gas/solid mixed media were studied. Biomimetic linear–cutted surfaces consisting of an array of three types of grooves, square–type, V–type and U–type, were designed and investigated to quantify their erosion wear resistance properties. A smooth surface sample was fabricated for comparison. The ANSYS-Fluent simulation of biomimetic models showed that the V-type groove sample, inspired by the desert organism's surface with different morphologies, exhibited the best erosion resistance. It also indicated the anti-erosion property of biomimetic samples could be attributed to the rotating flow in the grooves that reduces the impact speed of particles. The synchronized erosion test confirmed the conclusions. Furthermore, an application exploring of bionic blades on a centrifugal fan was conducted. The blades with optimum parameters could effectively improve anti-erosion property by 29%. We envision that more opportunities for biomimetic application in improving the anti–erosion performance of parts that work under dirt and sand particle environment will be proposed.

Bioinspired and Multifunctional Tribological Materials for Sliding, Erosive, Machining, and Energy-Absorbing Conditions: A Review

“…Inspired by the back of the desert scorpion, a few researchers have reported a hexagonal pit structure with excellent anti-erosion properties [186,[188][189][190]. The biomimetic samples with microstructures as shown in Figure 12d resulted in reduced erosion wear due to reduced solid particle velocity caused by rotational low velocity (explained in Figure 12f).…”

Tribological Behavior of Bioinspired Surfaces

“…Hang and Zang et al [ 91 , 136 , 139 ] identified the anti-erosion functionality of the scorpion’s back and the outcomes of multi-coupling effects. Few research studies identified that surface morphology is one of the most critical factors in resisting erosion, i.e., the scorpion resists erosion without causing damage due to its surface morphology [ 136 , 140 , 141 , 142 ]. In some of the research studies, it was obtained that the scorpion body has a special arrangement of grooves on the back (evolution and adaptability to the living environment) that can alter the boundary layer flow over the surface and helps in resisting erosion [ 143 , 144 ].…”

Study on Fatigue Characteristics of Bionic Functional Surface of Hardened Steel

“…Compared with the mold, the bionic non-smooth coupling treatment significantly improves the surface hardness, wear resistance and thermal fatigue performance of the mold. Han et al [ 24 , 25 ] the design and manufacture method of the bionic functional surface of a scorpion is proposed to improve the corrosion resistance of parts in environments with dust and sand. Tillmann et al [ 26 ] the honeycomb-like functional surface structure of an imitation scarab beetle head was processed by laser micro-processing technology.…”