Design in Nature Learning From Trees

About this book

This book is aimed at understanding the biomechanical optimisation of shape through looking at how bones and trees are formed and subsequently cope with stresses. Throughout the book, the principles and solutions to problems seen in trees are applied through computer-aided design to see how well we can mimic nature.

Contents

Introduction.- 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 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

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Biography

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).