Selected publications

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• Stamm, K, Saltin B. and Dirks, J.-H. (2021) Biomechanics of insect cuticle – an interdisciplinary experimental challenge. Applied Physics A - Biological and Biomimetic Materials, 127, 329

• Sviben, S., Spaeker, O., Bennet, M., Alberic, M., Dirks, J.-H., Moussian, B., Fratzl, P., Bertinetti, L. and Politi, Y. (2020). Epidermal cell surface structure and chitin-protein co- assembly determine fiber architecture in the Locust cuticle. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, vol. 12(23), pp. 25581-25590
• Schmidt, J., O'Neill, M., Dirks, J.-H. and Taylor, D. (2020). An Investigation of Crack Propagation in an Insect Wing Using the Theory of Critical Distances. Engineering and Fracture Mechanics, 232:107052
• Rajabi, H., Dirks, J.-H. and Gorb, S. (2020). Insect wing damage: causes, consequences and compensatory mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Biology, 223:jeb215194
• Plum, F., Labisch, S. and Dirks, J.-H. (2020). SAUV — A Bio-Inspired Soft-Robotic Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. Front. Neurorobot. 14, 1–13

• Reichel, S. V., Labisch, S. and Dirks, J.-H. (2019) What goes up must come down: biomechanical impact analysis of falling locusts.
  Journal of Experimental Biology vol. 222 (selected as highlighted article July 2019)
• Schwertmann, L., Focke, O. and Dirks, J.-H. (2019) Morphology, Shape Variation and Movement of Skeletal Elements in Starfish (Asterias rubens). Journal of Anatomy vol 234(5), pp. 656-667

• Rajabi, H., Shafiei, A., Darvizeh, A., Gorb, S., Dürr, V. and Dirks, J.-H. (2018) Both stiff and compliant: morphological and biomechanical adaptations of stick insect antennae for tactile exploration. Journal of the Royal Society Interface vol. 15 (144)

• Graf, C., Kesel, A., Gorb, E., Gorb, S. and Dirks, J.-H. (2018) Investigating the efficiency of a bio-inspired insect repellent surface structure. Bioinspiration and Biomimetics vol. 13(5)

• Rajabi, H. Bazargan, P., Pourbabaei, A., Eshghi, Sh., Darvizeh, A., Gorb, S. N., Taylor, D. and Dirks, J.-H. (2017) Wing cross veins: an efficient biomechanical strategy to mitigate fatigue failure of insect cuticle Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology vol. 16(6), pp. 1947-1955

• Rajabi, H. Jafarpour, M., Darvizeh, A. , Dirks, J.-H., S. N. Gorb (2017) Stiffness distribution in insect cuticle: a continuous or a discontinuous profile? Journal of the Royal Society Interface vol. 14(132)

• Chen, W., Diao, Z., Dirks, J.-H., Geiger, F., Spatz, J. (2017) Enhanced Optical Transmittance by Reduced Reflectance of Curved Polymer Surfaces Macromolecular Materials and Engineering

• Aberle, B., Jemmali, R. and Dirks, J.-H. (2017) Effect of sample treatment on biomechanical properties of insect cuticle Arthropod Structure & Development vol. 46(1), pp. 138-146
• Parlé, E., Dirks, J.-H. and Taylor, D. (2017) Damage, repair and regeneration in insect cuticle: The story so far, and possibilities for the future Arthropod Structure & Development vol 46(1), pp. 49-55

• Parlé, E., Dirks, J.-H., Taylor, D. (2016) Bridging the gap: wound healing in insects restores mechanical strength by targeted cuticle deposition Journal of the Royal Society Interface vol. 13(117), pp 20150984-7
• Diao, Z., Kraus, M., Brunner, R., Dirks, J.-H. and Joachim P. Spatz, Nanostructured Stealth Surfaces for Visible and Near-Infrared Light, Nano Letters, vol. 16 (10), pp 6610-6616, 2016.
• Rajabi, H., Shafiei, A., Darvizeh, A., Dirks, J.-H., Appel, E., Gorb, S.N. (2016) Effect of microstructure on the mechanical and damping behaviour of dragonfly wing veins Royal Society Open Science
• Rajabi, H. Rezasefat, M., Darvizeh, A., Dirks, J.-H., Eshghi, Sh., Shafiei, A., Mirzababaie Mostofi, T. and Gorb, S.N. (2016) A comparative study of the effects of constructional elements on the mechanical behaviour of dragonfly wings Applied Physics A vol. 122(19)

• Rajabi, H., Ghoroubi, N., Darvizeh, A., Dirks, J.-H., Appel, E. and Gorb, S.N. (2015) A comparative study of the effects of vein-joints on the mechanical behaviour of insect wings: I. Single joints Bioinspiration & Biomimetics 10(5)
• Rajabi, H., Darvizeh A. , Shafiei, A., Taylor, D. and Dirks, J.-H. (2015) Numerical investigation of insect wing fracture behaviour Journal of Biomechanics, vol. 48(1), pp 89-94

• Dirks, J.-H. (2014) Physical principles of fluid-mediated insect attachment - Shouldn't insects slip? Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnologie, vol. 5, pp 1160-1166
• Dirks, J.-H., Parle, E. and Taylor, D. (2013) Fatigue of insect cuticle The Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 216, pp 1924-1927
• Dirks, J.-H. and Taylor, D. (2012) Veins improve fracture toughness of insect wings PLoS ONE 7(8): e43411
• Taylor, D. and Dirks, J.-H. (2012) Shape Optimization in exoskeletons and endoskeletons: a biomechanics analysis Journal of the Royal Society Interface, vol. 9 (77), pp 3480-3489
• Dirks, J.-H., Li, M., Kabla, A. and Federle W. (2012) In vivo dynamics of the internal fibrous structure in smooth adhesive pads of insects Acta Biomaterialia, vol. 8 (7), pp 2730-2736
• Dirks, J.H. and Taylor, D. (2012) Fracture toughness of locust cuticle The Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 215, pp 1502-1508 (selected as ‘Editor's choice‘ June 2012)
• Dirks, J.-H. and Federle, W. (2011) Fluid-based adhesion in insects - principles and challenges Soft Matter, vol. 7, pp 11047-11053 (selected as ‘Hot Highlight‘ November 2011)
• Dirks, J.-H. and Dürr, V. (2011) Biomechanics of the stick insect antenna: Damping properties and structural correlates of the cuticle Journal of the Mechanical Behaviour of Biomedical Materials, vol. 4 (8), pp 2031–2042
• Peattie, A. M. , Dirks, J.-H., Henriques, S. and Federle, W. (2011) Arachnids secrete a fluid over their adhesive pads PLoS ONE 6 (5): e20485
• Dirks, J.-H. and Federle, W. (2011) Mechanisms of fluid production in smooth adhesive pads of insects Journal of the Royal Society Interface, vol. 8 (60), pp 952-960
• Dirks, J.-H., Clemente, C. and Federle, W. (2010). Insect tricks: two-phasic foot pad secretion prevents slipping Journal of the Royal Society Interface, vol. 7 (45), pp 587-593
• Clemente, C., Dirks, J.-H., Barbero, D., Steiner, U. and Federle, W. (2009). Friction ridges in cockroach climbing pads: anisotropy of shear stress measured on transparent, microstructured substrates Journal of Comparative Physiology A, vol. 195 (9), pp 805-814