Designing nature-inspired swimming gloves: a biomimicry design spiral approach

Abstract

This study aims to present a comprehensive overview of the technical steps in the biomimicry design spiral and endeavours to apply these steps in the design of a swimming gloves. This involves five steps in the biomimicry design spiral as distillation, translation, discovery, emulation and evaluation. The study then provides four alternative designs inspired by the morphology of crab-eating frog legs (Fejervarya cancrivora). Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation is conducted to assess drag and lift forces. The simulation incorporates parameters such as fluid density, flow speed, water pressure, turbulence intensity and viscosity. The result reveals that the full-cross (FC) swimming glove design exhibits the highest drag force, while the full-straight (FS) design achieves the highest lift force. The usability test is conducted to evaluate the designs by considering five aspects, i.e. material comfort, ease of use, ease of swimming and non-swimming activities, as well as aesthetics. The potential benefits for the industry are also provided in the end of the article.

Public Interest Statement

Finding innovative ideas in new product development is critical because designer creativity is required to meet market demands. Nature can be a source of inspiration. Biomimicry is an interdisciplinary approach to studying and transferring principles or mechanisms from nature to solve design challenges. This article explains how to design swimming gloves using the Biomimicry design spiral approach. Training arm muscles and swimming faster have become necessary for professional swimmers to improve their swimming performance. The idea of a membrane addition resembling a crab-eating frog’s (Fejervarya cancrivora) leg to the section of the hand used for paddling while swimming aims to increase thrust. Biomimicry consists of five steps as distillation, translation, discovery, emulation and evaluation. This study serves as an illustrative example of how biomimicry can be employed in product design, spanning from the initial idea generation phase to product testing, to achieve a product that effectively addresses design challenges.

Keywords:

• Biomimicry design spiral
• computational fluid dynamic simulation
• drag and lift force simulation
• nature-inspired design
• swimming gloves

Review Editor:

• Pham D T
• Chance Professor of Engineering
• School of Mechanical Engineering
• University of Birmingham
• Birmingham B15 2TT
• UNITED KINGDOM

Subjects:

• Computer Science
• Computation
• Simulation and Modelling
• Industrial Engineering and Manufacturing
• Industrial Design
• Manufacturing Engineering
• Sustainable Engineering and Manufacturing
• Arts and Humanities
• Arts
• Art and Visual Culture
• Design
• Product Design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

There is no associated data for this manuscript.

Notes

1 The drag force is the force acting parallel to the direction of fluid flow; where the lift force is the force acting perpendicular to the drag force on the horizontal plane x–y (Bixler et al., 2007).

2 Mesh size denotes the size of discretization elements or cells used to partition the flow domain.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Directorate General of Research and Community Service, Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of Indonesia, under the scheme of ‘Penelitian Terapan Unggulan Perguruan Tinggi’ in 2018.

Notes on contributors

Ratna Purwaningsih

Ratna Purwaningsih is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Diponegoro University, Indonesia. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and doctoral degree in Marine Technology from Sepuluh Nopember Institut of Technology, Indonesia. Her research interests include product design and development, design for sustainability, and industrial sustainability.

Denny Nurkertamanda

Denny Nurkertamanda is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Diponegoro University, Indonesia. He finished his doctoral degree in Occupational Safety and Health from Udayana University, Indonesia. His research interests include ergonomics, occupational safety and health, and product development.

M. Mujiya Ulkhaq

M. Mujiya Ulkhaq is a Lecturer in the Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Diponegoro University, Indonesia. He finished his doctoral degree in Analytics for Economics and Management from University of Brescia, Italy. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering at Diponegoro University, Indonesia, and master’s degree in Engineering Management at Jönköping University, Sweden. His research interests include performance measurement, impact evaluation, service and quality management, as well as data analytics.

Faradhina Azzahra

Faradhina Azzahra is a Lecturer in the Department of Industrial Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Diponegoro University, Semarang, Indonesia. She gained her master’s degree in Industrial Engineering at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. Her research interests include Ergonomic Cognitive, Agent-based Model, as well as Environmental and Sustainability-related Issue.

Daffa Alyaa Musyaffa

Daffa Alyaa Musyaffa is an industrial engineering graduate from Department of Industrial Engineering, Diponegoro University. His research interest is product design.