Environmental Engineering Reference
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Fig. 10.14
Self-adjusted cable-stayed bridge (Hu
2010
)
10.3 Future Directions
A brief project review in the previous section illustrated that bio-inspired phi-
losophy is a promising route for the design industry. Instead of mimicry, both
architects and engineers have adopted the mechanistic and material level inspi-
ration and utilized those ideas in the design and construction of man-made
structures during the past decade. The latest published topic on biologically
inspired design by Goel et al. (
2014
) pointed out four major challenges of the
marriage between biology and engineering: (1) solve real problems and document
successful
applications;
(2)
develop
bio-inspired
design
theory;
(3)
develop
computational methods and tools; (4) educate new generation students.
For a cross-disciplinary environment in the near future, the bio-inspired design
requires the cooperation between engineers and biologists. Future engineering
students should not be trapped in professional boundaries and must expand their
interdisciplinary knowledge. Figure
10.15
describes a typical process for bio-
inspired design, which refers to a regular scientific research procedure that
includes experimental investigation, numerical analysis and testing, etc. The most
important step in this process is the selection of the appropriate biological pro-
totype. Bionic researchers need to provide resources of prototypes that allow
engineers to reference for design inspiration. For example, Biomimicry 3.8, a
nonprofit corporation dedicated to biomimicry education launched the world's first
digital library of nature's solutions ''AskNature.'' To develop a feasible study on a
prototype, it is necessary to work with biologists so that more interdisciplinary
knowledge can be transferred. For the past fifty years, many bio-based technolo-
gies have been illustrated, such as tough composites based on fiber orientations in
wood, tough ceramics based on mother-of-pearl, deployable structures based on
flowers and leaves, underwater glues based on mussel adhesive, drag reduction
based on dermal riblet on shark skin, flight mechanisms based on insect flight, etc.
Recent efforts on bio-inspired design on multiscale smart structures can be found
in Barbarino et al. (
2011
), Espinosa et al. (
2009
), Giurgiutiu (
2007
), Hurlebaus
and Gaul (
2006
), Kovaˇ (
2013
), Liu and Jiang (
2011
), Mudupu et al. (
2008
),
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