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Design in Nature

Learning from Trees

  • Book
  • © 1998

Overview

Authors:
  1. Claus Mattheck

    1. Institute for Material Research II, Research Center Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany

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  • Describes external shape optimization in nature and how these laws of biological design can be transferred for use in engineering
  • A pleasure to read due to Mattheck's vivid and easy-to-understand style, and the 100 color illustrations

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Table of contents (21 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XIV
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 1-2

  3. The Minimum on Mechanics

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 3-23

  4. What Is a Good Mechanical Design?

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 25-27

  5. The Axiom of Uniform Stress and How Computer Methods Derive from It

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 29-42

  6. The Mechanics of Trees and the Self-Optimization of Tree Shape

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 43-51

  7. The Right Load Distribution: The Axiom of Uniform Stress and Tree Shape

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 53-114

  8. Annual Rings: The Internal Diary as a Consequence of the External Situation

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 115-128

  9. Wood Fibres and Force Flow: The Fear of Shear Stress

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 129-139

  10. How Does a Tree Break?

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 141-162

  11. Can Trees Really Not Shrink?

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 163-164

  12. Bones: Ultra-Light and Very Strong by Continuous Optimization of Shape

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 165-165

  13. Bone Design: Selected Examples

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 167-182

  14. Bony Frameworks and Tree Frameworks Compared

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 183-184

  15. Claws and Thorns: Shape-Optimized by Success in the Lottery of Heredity

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 185-189

  16. Biological Shells

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 191-198

  17. Bracing: Ultra-Light but Highly Specialized

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 199-208

  18. Shape Optimization by Growth in Engineering Design

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 209-220

  19. Unity in Diversity: Design Target and Realization

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 221-222

  20. Critique on Optimum Shape: Sensitization by Specialization

    • Claus Mattheck
    Pages 223-223
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Keywords

About this book

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.

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

Authors and Affiliations

  • Institute for Material Research II, Research Center Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Claus Mattheck

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).

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