Nanomechanical properties of bird feather rachises: exploring naturally occurring fibre reinforced laminar composites.

ABSTRACT: Flight feathers have evolved under selective pressures to be sufficiently light and strong enough to cope with the stresses of flight. The feather shaft (rachis) must resist these stresses and is fundamental to this mode of locomotion. Relatively little work has been done on rachis morphology, especially from a mechanical perspective and never at the nanoscale. Nano-indentation is a cornerstone technique in materials testing. Here we use this technique to make use of differentially oriented fibres and their resulting mechanical anisotropy. The rachis is established as a multi-layered fibrous composite material with varying laminar properties in three feathers of birds with markedly different flight styles; the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor), the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and the partr

SUBMITTER: Laurent CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4223922 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature