Trees and bones achieve an even distribution of mechanical tension through the efficient use of material and adaptive structural design, optimizing strength, resilience, and material for a wide variety of load conditions. For example, to distribute stress uniformly, trees add wood to points of greatest mechanical load, while bones go a step further, removing material where it is not needed, lightweighting their structure for their dynamic workloads. At the scale of the cell, trees arrange fibers in the direction of the flow of force, or principal stress trajectories, to minimize shear stress. Engineers have incorporated these and other lessons learned from trees and bones into software design programs that optimize the weight and performance of fiber-composite materials. For example, car parts and entire cars designed with these principles have resulted in new vehicle designs that are as crash-safe as conventional cars, but up to 30% lighter.
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“The analogy that [Claus] Mattheck wants to pursue, though, is not that between trees and other organisms, but between trees and engineered artefacts. If trees achieve longevity and structural stability, aren’t these the qualities of reliability and integrity that engineers want to design into products?
“The key to this is Mattheck’s contention that the structural optimisation in trees and apparent in other natural structures such as animal bones is all about making the external and internal stresses as uniform across the whole structure as possible. Mattheck calls this the ‘axiom of uniform stress’ and adds that, though he can cite plenty of examples of it, he cannot prove it exists…Mattheck’s contention is that trees are constantly readjusting this balance by adding more material at points of high stress and adding no material at points of low or no stress. (Bones, he contends, go one stage further by actually shrinking at points of low stress.)
“In trees, junctions between main trunks and branches, for instance, are places of concentrated stresses. Trees compensate for this extra stress by adding more material to the shoulder.” (Pullin 1998:17-18)
We must take care of our environment now so that future genrations will be able to benefit from it.
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In pic. 3/3 showing enlarged growth rings on one side of the tree, reference Victor Schauberger idea that it is due to solar radiation expanding the material exposed to the sun. Look for trees in a shaded forest not to have this difference in growth rings toward the Soutn (in N. hemisphere) due to never having been highly exposed to sun rays.
very interesting, but i still have reservations about how to put this into practice… sounds like a wonderful avenue to design better aircraft. For that I would look especially at the bones of long distance flying birds, such as an albatross, and then probably at the bones around the chest area, which carry a great deal of strain during flight.
I read Claus Mattheck's book "Design in Nature: Learning from Trees" and now every walk in the woods or in town is spent looking at how trees grow, adjust, and heal. Even looking at a cut board has become more interesting.