Nonlinear dynamics of a synthetic spider web

Spiders dedicate a significant amount of energy and a variety of different types of silk to build their webs. Therefore, it has been speculated that spider webs are more than just simple traps. Spider web are highly complex mechanical structures that might act also as mechanical filters that significantly enhance and extend the sensory capabilities of spiders,enabling them to identify and localise preys and predators. This paper experimentally investigates the dynamic behaviour of a synthetic, 3D-printed spider web to identity general morphological features that can contribute to this filtering capability. First results show, even a simple, artificial web exhibits a wide range of complex dynamic behaviours such as sub- and super-harmonic interactions