Fall 2015

Seminars are held on Tuesdays at 11:30AM in Cullimore Hall, Room 611, unless noted otherwise. For questions about the seminar schedule, please contact Casey Diekman.


Date: September 29, 2015

Speaker: Brooke Flammang
Department of Biological Sciences,
NJIT

University Profile

Title: "A Bioinspired Long-Term, Reversible Underwater Adhesive Mechanism"

Abstract:

Adhesion, and in particular long-term reversible adhesion, to a wet or submerged surface is challenging. In the natural world, few organisms can adhere to underwater substrates and those that do generally use glue-like mechanisms or attach only to stationary objects. Remora fishes have evolved a unique adaptive ability - an adhesive disk formed from dorsal fin elements – that allows them to attach reversibly to actively deforming bodies of varying roughness that move at high speed. Our primary objective is to characterize the disc tissues and functional structures via biological and engineering methods. We are accomplishing this through the simultaneous study of live remora, mathematical modeling of functional parameters, and physical modeling of mechanical actions. Five areas of our ongoing research target the multiple functional components of the remora adhesive mechanism: disc morphology, lamellar kinematics, spinule friction, viscoelastic seal performance, and drag hydrodynamics. We are applying our findings to produce a robotic device capable to sticking to surfaces of varying roughness in air or water.