BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:researchseminars.org CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:researchseminars.org BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Douglas Cortes (New Mexico State University) DTSTART:20200813T220000Z DTEND:20200813T230000Z DTSTAMP:20260404T094119Z UID:CivilEngineering/1 DESCRIPTION:Title: “La estrategia de la lombriz”: explorando la inspiraci ón biológica en geotecnia\nby Douglas Cortes (New Mexico State Unive rsity) as part of Javeriana seminar series on civil engineering\n\nAbstrac t: TBA\n\n(La charla será en español) Earthworms and other annelids have been the source of inspiration for a wide range of exciting limbless robo ts that use peristaltic motion to crawl on surfaces or move within tubes. However\, most of these bio-inspired devices have not been put to the test of burrowing in granular media. As a result\, it is easy for industry to underestimate the technology readiness of these designs\, and flock to mor e conventional soil augering\, and driving tools. Penetrating the ground i nvolves complex soil-robot mechanical interactions. The volume expansion a nd contraction that define peristaltic motion cause simultaneous localized densification of the soil (solid-like behavior) and the formation of shea r bands (flow-like behavior). Therefore\, the movement of the worm alters the structure of the soil and constantly changes the nature of their inter action. This makes it difficult to use simple continuum mechanics models t o study subsurface peristaltic motion. We created an elegantly simple eart hworm (Lumbricus terrestris) inspired soil penetration device by combining a miniature steel cone penetrometer with a soft membrane and deployed it in a bed of dry loose sand particles. Instead of mimicing the entire body\ , our device is inspired on the earthworm’s anterior end. Forward moveme nt is driven by a linear actuator set on a load frame. Hence\, our study f ocuses on the potential changes in penetration resistance caused by volume expansion and contraction of the soft membrane. Tests are divided in two series. In the first one we explore the effect of membrane position\, and in the second the effect of changes in boundary conditions and incremental penetration depth. Results consistently show a significant decrease in pe netration resistance when using the earthworm-inspired penetration techniq ue compared to conventional soil driving. A complementary discrete element model (DEM) study provides insight into the soil response during penetrat ion.\n LOCATION:https://stable.researchseminars.org/talk/CivilEngineering/1/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR