Actually it's easy…

Boeing engineers are able to perform complicated calculations in the design of the planes thanks to the "finite elements" software, which was developed inspired by the bone growth process in the human body.

By Ziv Kohani

For many years, the formulas, which to most people look like ancient Chinese, were the tool with which engineers performed various calculations, such as those related to the strength of materials and structures, in order to design complex products, such as airplanes, vehicles, etc., knowing that an error in the calculation could cost human lives.

In addition, engineers needed a drawing board and different writing tools in order to make drawings and designs of simple or complex mechanical products.

So the drawing board and writing tools began to be replaced about 20 years ago by two-dimensional and three-dimensional computer aided design (computer-aided design) programs, which enabled great time savings and obtaining a tangible picture during the planning stages.

The calculation of the strength of the materials and structures mentioned earlier are what actually determine which raw material the engineer will choose for the production of a certain part, and in what size and thickness he will define the part, a choice which of course affects the cost of the final product, its weight and other parameters. The engineers fought with the formulas and used confidence factors for the results of the calculations in order to guarantee the quality of the product they planned.

A few years ago, software appeared on the market designed to make the life of engineers easier: "finite element" software, software that knows how to calculate, in a precise and detailed manner, the load that each part "feels" as a result of forces acting on it, something that until then, as mentioned, engineers could only achieve with the help of calculations tiresome These programs make it possible to lower costs, reduce weight, increase efficiency and improve safety in many products.

In the picture: Checking loads on a vehicle during an accident using finite element software.
And what does all this have to do with our affairs? It turns out that one of the new software in this field on the market is based on the world of biomimicry...

appears to have been programmed ALTAIR's OptiStruct So reliable and good, that even the Boeing company, the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world, uses it and manages to achieve an optimal quality-cost-weight design of many components in the plane, from the wings of the plane to its floor.

The same software makes use of algorithms inspired by the world of biology, like, for example, the same tree that grows cells, thickens its trunk and adds thickness and strength exactly where it is needed to avoid bending itself caused by a strong wind.

From this algorithm it is possible to conclude about the optimal structure form, which is very suitable for the world of XNUMXD printers that have entered our world in every field. You can precisely define the structure of the part with the help of the software, and realize it easily, by manufacturing with XNUMXD printing technology.

OptiStruct It was actually developed on the basis of the process of bone growth in the human body, when surprisingly, its inventor, Jeff Brennan, currently one of the senior managers of the ALTAIR company, was researching mechanisms for a solution to osteoporosis, and from there he came to the possibility of adapting it to the software...

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