Design in Nature: Learning from Trees / Edition 1

by Claus Mattheck, W. Linnard

Overview

The chicken bone you nibbled yesterday and threw away was a high-tech product! Not only that: it was a superlative light-weight design, functionally adapted to its mechanical requirements. No engineer in the world has, as yet, been able to copy this structural member, which is excellently optimized in its external shape and its internal architecture as regards minimum weight and maximum strength. The tree stem on which you recently carved your initials has also, by life-long care for its body, steadily improved its internal and external structure and adapted optimally to new loads. In the course of its biomechanical self-optimization it will heal up the notch you cut as speedily as possible, in order to repair even the smallest weak point, which might otherwise cost it its life in the next storm. This book is dedicated to the understanding of this biomechanical optimization of shape. It is the synthesis of many years of extensive research using the latest computer methods at the Karlsruhe Research Centre to help understand the mechanism of biological self-optimization (adaptive growth) and to simulate it by computer. The method newly developed for this purpose was called CAO (Computer-Aided Optimization). With this method, it is possible to predict the growth of trees, bones and other biological structures from the tiger's claw to the sea urchin's skeleton.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783540629375
Publisher:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publication date:	02/27/2004
Edition description:	1998
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Born in Dresden, Germany in 1947. Study of physics in Dresden, Phd in theoretical physics in 1973. Habilitation in the field of damage control in 1985. Lectures on biomechanics at the University of Kalrsruhe. Head of the Department of Biomechanics of the Research Centre in Karlsruhe. Several awards in science and literature, 2003 Germany's environmental achievement award (Deutscher Umweltpreis).

Table of Contents

The Minimum on Mechanics.- What Is a Good Mechanical Design?.- The Axiom of Uniform Stress and How Computer Methods Derive from It.- The Mechanics of Trees and the Self-Optimization of Tree Shape.- The Right Load Distribution: The Axiom of Uniform Stress and Tree Shape.- Annual Rings: The Internal Diary as a Consequence of the External Situation.- Wood Fibres and Force Flow: The Fear of Shear Stress.- How Does a Tree Break?.- Can Trees Really Not Shrink?.- Bones: Ultra-Light and Very Strong by Continuous Optimization of Shape.- Bone Design: Selected Examples.- Bony Frameworks and Tree Frameworks Compared.- Claws and Thorns: Shape-Optimized by Success in the Lottery of Heredity.- Biological Shells.- Bracing: Ultra-Light but Highly Specialized.- Shape Optimization by Growth in Engineering Design.- Unity in Diversity: Design Target and Realization.- Critique on Optimum Shape: Sensitization by Specialization.- Outlook: Ecodesign and Close-to-Nature Computer Empiricism.- New Examples of Application in Self-Explanatory Illustrations.- References.

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews

"I recommend this book to biologists and engineers alike." Nature

"...delightful ...this book is a visual feast for engineers and industrial designers, while the photographs and exuberant prose make it accessible to all." New Scientist

From the Publisher