Harnessing Design Principles from Glass Sponges for Structurally Robust Lattices

The glass sponge Euplectella Sp. are predominately deep sea sponges that live in ocean depths of 100-2000m. Beyond their fracture propagation inhibiting material composition, these sponges are perceived to exhibit large structural rigidity and strength against buckling. Since these sponges are primarily made of ’brittle silica’, buckling strength may be a crucial property in making them resistant to impact and environmentally applied stresses. Structurally, they exhibit a base square-grid architecture and regular ordering of vertical and horizontal struts that form the skeletal system. Furthermore, their base structure is overlaid with double diagonal reinforcement struts, which create a checkerboard-like pattern of open-closed cell structure. Based on its similarity to square lattices found in structural engineering, we explore the following research question: Can we generate design principles for diagonal reinforcements of square beam lattices that are optimally designed to avoid global structural buckling? Here, we present a numerical analysis of the structure deformation under various loading conditions as well as survey different arrangements within similar design space of the sponge. Furthermore, we present experimental evidence that supports our numerical analysis.