According to foreign media New Atlas, sponges have provided the scientific community with a lot of things, from the next generation of body armor to new ways to treat tuberculosis. Now we see how they can inspire stronger and lighter skyscrapers and bridges. Engineers at Harvard University have demonstrated a new load-bearing structure based on the glass-like bones of these marine organisms, which they say is more than 20% stronger than current solutions.
The diagonal lattice structure is the backbone of a typical covered bridge. It is constructed from lightweight and inexpensive materials and uses closely spaced diagonal beams to evenly distribute the load. Engineers have been using this method since the early 19th century, and this technique has also been used to support tall buildings and even the metal storage shelves you can find in local home improvement stores. But the Harvard team believes there is room for improvement.
"It can get the job done, but it is not optimal, leading to material waste or redundancy, and the upper limit of how high we can build," said Matheus Fernandes, the first author of the study. "One of the main questions driving this research is, from a material distribution point of view, can we make these structures more efficient and ultimately use less material to achieve the same strength?"
Fernandes and his collaborators from Harvard University’s School of Engineers and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have studied the skeletal system of marine sponges for more than two decades and discovered some new potential in a species called Euplectella aspergillum .
The skeleton of this glass sponge relies on a complex checkerboard pattern, connected by diagonal pillars to the square grid at the bottom, forming a solid structure that supports the tubular body of the creature. "We have been studying the structure-function relationship of the sponge skeletal system for more than 20 years, and these species continue to surprise us," said study author James Weaver.
Scientists created an artificial version of this bone structure and compared its performance as a load-bearing structure with the grid geometry commonly used today through simulation and experiments. This sponge-inspired architecture surpasses all architectures, and the structural strength is increased by more than 20% without the need for additional materials.
"Our research shows that the lessons learned from the study of the sponge skeletal system can be used to construct geometrically optimized structures to delay bending, which has great significance for improving the use of materials in modern infrastructure applications," research author Katia Bertoldi Say.
The team stated that this architecture provides "the highest bending resistance for a given amount of material", opening up some exciting possibilities. This may include new bridges, buildings, and even aircraft and spacecraft that use materials more efficiently.
"In many fields, such as aerospace engineering, the strength-to-weight ratio of the structure is critical," Weaver said. "This biologically inspired geometric structure can provide a roadmap for designing lighter and stronger structures to meet a wide range of application needs."
The research was published in the journal Nature-Materials, and the video below provides an overview of the research.
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