Bioinspired building structural conceptual design by graphic static and layout optimization: a case study of human femur structure

Abstract

This paper introduces a bioinspired structure design method in the conceptual stage and takes the human femur section as an example, to extract the structural principle from the natural form, and summarizes as the morphological operation rules. The morphological manipulation rules provide a geometric feedback-based design process of both the building structural performance and its space with the manipulation rule of Graphic static. While extracting building structural principle, the Layout Optimization method is applied to obtain the force flow inside the nature biological form boundary under a certain load, and the force flow is presented with strut and tie model, summarizing the structural characteristic of human femur. The combinatorial and transformation methods of graphic statics are employed in the morphological operation stage to transform the form diagram while maintaining equilibrium, which facilitates designers to explore the structural form from both performance and space perspectives. Finally, the design process of a stadium inspired by the human femur is taken as an example to demonstrate how the introduced workflow can be used in the conceptual design stage and optimization of buildings.

How can research on modern and fossil bones help us build more resistant columns?

“…The kind of bones used for bioinspiration depend on the mechanical properties of interest. Historically, the focus has been on the human femur [12,21,22]; but since then, inspiration has spread to, for example, the spine for its mix of strength, flexibility and stability [23][24][25], bird bones for their combination of lightness and strength [13,17,26,27], woodpecker skull and sheep velar bone for impact load applications [28,29], or the relative proportions and articulation of human or other mammalian bones for robotic design [30,31]. However, if bone answers to functional constraints, its structure also relies on developmental and structural (e.g.…”