Mantis shrimp inspires 'stronger' body armor, athletic gear design

Mantis shrimp has inspired the scientists to create new range of stronger aerospace and automotive frames, body armor and athletic gear like football helmet.

According to a new research paper by University of California, Riverside and Purdue University engineers, the mantis shrimp is able to repeatedly pummel the shells of prey using a hammer-like appendage that can withstand rapid-fire blows by neutralizing certain frequencies of "shear waves."

This spiral architecture is naturally designed to survive the repeated high-velocity blows.

David Kisailus said that with this novel concept, they could make composite materials able to filter certain stress waves that would otherwise damage the material.

The "dactyl club" can reach an acceleration of 10,000 Gs, unleashing a barrage of impacts with the speed of a .22 caliber bullet.

The researchers modeled the structure with the same mathematical equations used to study materials in solid-state physics and photonics, showing the structure possesses "bandgaps" that filter out the damaging effects of shear waves traveling at the speed of sound.