How woodpecker avoids brain injury?

11th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures

物理学;材料科学

Wu, C.W.^1 ; Zhu, Z.D.^1 ; Zhang, W.^1

State Key Lab of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian

116024, China^1

关键词: Brain protection;    Computed topography;    Energy analysis;    Geometry model;    Numerical results;    Scanning techniques;    Stress wave propagation;    Working frequency;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/628/1/012007/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/628/1/012007

学科分类：材料科学（综合）

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

It has long been recognized that woodpecker is an excellent anti-shock organism, as its head and brain can bear high deceleration up to 1500 g under fast pecking. To investigate the mechanism of brain protection of woodpecker, we built a finite element model of a whole woodpecker using computed topography scanning technique and geometry modeling. Numerical results show that the periodical changing Young's modulus around the skull affects the stress wave propagation in head and makes the stress lowest at the position of the brain. Modal analysis reveals the application of pre-tension force to the hyoid bone can increase the natural frequency of woodpecker's head. The large gap between the natural and working frequencies enable the woodpecker to effectively protect its brain from the resonance injury. Energy analyses indicate the majority of the impact energy (99.7%) is stored in the bulk of body and is utilized in the next pecking. There is only a small fraction of it enters into the head (0.3%). The whole body of the woodpecker gets involved in the energy conversion and forms an efficient anti-shock protection system for the brain.