Exploration of the Application of Biomimetic Structures in Lightweight Mechanical Design
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/e2k7vr90Keywords:
Biomimetics, bio-inspired design, lightweight structures, cellular materials, lattice structures, topology optimisation, additive manufacturingAbstract
Lightweight design is one of the central goals of modern mechanical engineering. Lighter structures consume less energy, carry more payload, and produce fewer emissions over their service life. Nature has solved the same problem over millions of years of evolution, producing structures such as bone, bamboo, honeycomb and seashell that reach high strength and stiffness with very little material. This review summarises how these natural structures work, how their design principles have been transferred into engineering, and where they are now applied. Four groups of biomimetic structures are examined: honeycomb and cellular structures, bone-inspired lattices, plant-inspired tubular and venation structures, and shell-type sandwich structures. The review then discusses the two technologies that made modern biomimetic design practical, topology optimisation and additive manufacturing, and surveys applications in aerospace, automotive and robotic systems. Finally, it identifies the main challenges that remain, including manufacturing cost, fatigue behaviour and the lack of standard design tools. The overall finding is that biomimetic structures can reduce component mass by 20 to 50 percent in many cases, but that their wider adoption depends on better integration between biological knowledge, computational design and manufacturing.
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