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  • Book
  • © 2014

Remarkable Natural Material Surfaces and Their Engineering Potential

Editors:

  • Discusses natural surfaces in a format that is accessible to less technical readers
  • Contains material on natural surfaces that can be found locally
  • Encourages readers to explore the engineering value of the natural surfaces surrounding them
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Softcover Book USD 32.99
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Hardcover Book USD 32.99
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  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
  2. Mother-of-Pearl: An Engineering Gem

    • Michelle Lee
    Pages 29-40
  3. Lotus Leaves: Humble Beauties

    • Michelle Lee
    Pages 53-63
  4. Botanical Leaves: Groovy Terrain

    • Ignacio Estrada
    Pages 91-101
  5. Gecko Pads: A Force to Be Reckoned with

    • Michelle Lee
    Pages 115-126
  6. Spider Silk: A Sticky Situation

    • Michelle Lee
    Pages 145-157
  7. Back Matter

    Pages 159-163

About this book

This book explores a collection of natural surfaces, their scientific characteristics and their unique engineering potential – demonstrating that engineering applications can be found in unexpected places. The surfaces covered range from botanical ones, like rice and lotus leaves, to insect surfaces, like butterfly and dragonfly wings. The variety of surfaces and numerous engineering potentials described show how biomimicry can be utilized to solve countless real‐world problems.

Reviews

From the book reviews:

“This is a fascinating collection of 13 popular science–level, short articles on naturally occurring surfaces, some of their outstanding properties, and possible applications in engineered surfaces. … Each chapter contains a description of the natural surface, the fundamental engineering principles underlying its function, potential engineering applications, and a bibliography. The brief, uniformly presented chapters, with a well-balanced layout of text, images, and basic equations, can be read easily. … Summing Up: Highly recommended. All students and general readers.” (J. Lambropoulos, Choice, Vol. 52 (5), January, 2015)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Evanston, USA

    Michelle Lee

About the editor

Michelle Lee is at the McCormick School of Engineering of Northwestern University.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 24.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 32.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 32.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access