Thaindian News

London, Mar 22 (ANI): New experiments from Harvard University suggest that building a sticky substance into car bodywork could make them more resistant to impacts.

As part of the research, Paula Mellado and her colleagues tested how flexible, CD-sized plastic discs crumple when their centres are pulled through coin-sized holes.

The sides of each disc are forced to bend inwards, forming cone-like structures that rub against one another.

The researchers reported that discs coated with a thin layer of glue were harder to pull through the hole than uncoated discs.

“When you have a sticky membrane, the two sides will touch each other, but they won’t slip,” New Scientist quoted Mellado as saying.

With the sides sticking to one another, the disc resists further deformation, and cannot easily curl up to pass through the hole.

She suggests that adding a sticky coating to the surfaces of sheet materials that are likely to pass across each other in an impact, such as those used to make cars, could make them more resistant to impacts, without adding much to their weight.

The study appears in an upcoming edition of Physical Review E. (ANI)