Bio-inspired Bridge Design - Biotechnologies and Biomimetics for Civil Engineering - page 231

architectural design is that only the geometrical aspect of biological creatures
that commonly aimed to achieve visual expression were learned without much
attention to efficiency and economy. Review articles about the development of
bio-inspired architecture can be found in papers (Aldersey-Williams 2004 ; John
et al. 2005 ; Knippers and Speck 2012 ; Petra 2008 ).
Architectural design and structural design are professions that have a historical
misunderstanding, even though the core of both professions is shaping man-made
structures. That was not the case during most of history because up until the end of
the eighteenth century, the two professions were as one. After the Industrial
Revolution, engineering developed as a discipline in its own right with a scientific
basis and moved increasingly further away from architecture. The rationale behind
the history of structural design did not change much no matter the scale of a
structure, which featured a search on a cost-effective and performance-efficient
design without losing its elegance. A structural design can be regarded as a work
of art by the following three tenets: economy, efficiency, and elegance Billington
( 1983 ) Bridge design, in particular, is a unique regime where engineers evolved a
dominant role over architects and are capable of designing a work of art in their
discipline.
Biological inspiration on bridge design is not a recent topic. Ancestors started to
build ancient bridges after recognizing how the natural world used structural forms
to span physical obstacles. In fact, all basic types of modern bridge forms (beam,
arch, and suspension) can find their ancient prototypes in nature (Tang 2007 ). The
only difference is that ancient people built the bridges with natural materials
(wood, vines, stone, and ropes) while modern technology uses steel, concrete, etc.
Even new structural forms show connections with natural forms. For example, the
Hacking Ferry Bridge's three-way deck (45 m on each side) in Fig. 10.1 b not only
provides sufficient structural stability but also necessary clearance for the channel.
The Webb Bridge (Fig. 10.1 d) at Melbourne has a curve layout instead of a
straight one, but provides an interesting experience to the bicyclists and pedes-
trians. Architects or engineers may not directly learn from natural forms, but it
does show that biological creatures can be regarded as a significant resource with a
variety of interesting designs.
Limited papers are found on the discussion of bio-inspired bridges. Hu et al.
( 2013 ) summarizes five main aspects in nature (Table 10.1 ) that may inspire the
development of future bridge systems: geometry, structure, kinetic mechanism,
energy efficiency, and intelligence
It is shown that biological inspiration is a very promising route to inspire bridge
design not only in traditional stationary forms but also in emerging movable form.
Thus, the objective of this chapter is to present a review on recent bridge projects
to show how the bio-inspired philosophy has impacted conceptual design in the
past and will bring a new language in the future that potentially could encourage a
marriage between biological knowledge and bridge design.