Author(s)

P. vander Straeten, M. F. Destain & J.C. Verbrugge

Abstract

This paper deals with the possibility of reducing the sliding resistance of soil against bulldozing plates by using unsmoothed bionic surfaces imitating the surface morphology of the head top plate of underground living animals. Microscope (SEM) observations of the morphological microstructure of the body surface of dung beetles (Geotrupes stercorarius) were focused on the bulldozing plate on the head used to groove and pull the soil. The micro relief showed a surface made of humps and dips with a general arrangement constituted from irregular hexagonal or parallelogram patterns. Based on these observations, twelve plates (approximately 152 x 200mm) were constructed. One was flat and taken as a reference. The eleven others were adapted with circular humps or dips having the form of a portion o

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