Peculiar torsion dynamical response of spider dragline silk

These data are related to our paper "Dabiao Liu, Longteng Yu, Yuming He*, Kai Peng, Jie Liu, Juan Guan, and D. J. Dunstan. Peculiar Torsion Dynamical Response of Spider Dragline Silk. Applied Physics Letters, 111 (2017), 013701." In this work, the torsional properties of spider dragline silks from Nephila edulis and Nephila pilipes spiders are investigated by using a torsion pendulum technique. A permanent torsional deformation is observed after even small torsional strain. This behaviour is quite different from that of the other materials tested here, i.e., carbon fiber, thin metallic wires, Kevlar fiber, and human hair. The spider dragline thus displays a strong energy dissipation upon the initial excitation (around 75% for small strains and more for a larger strain), which correspondingly reduces the amplitude of subsequent oscillations around the new equilibrium position. The variation of torsional stiffness in relaxation dynamics of spider draglines for different excitations is also determined. The experimental result is interpreted in the light of the hierarchical structure of dragline silk.

This project has received funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 704292.