Compliant Shell Deformation in Plants

Compliant Shell Deformation in Plants: A Designer's Toolbox

Joosten, S.T. (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)

Radaelli, G. (mentor)
Vallery, H. (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

2020

The mechanisms that move plants can serve as biological role models for engineers, designers and architects. This practice is slowly being implemented in various engineering fields, with architects often being pioneers. Various methodologies have been written about the subject, but often only from an architectural point of view.
The classification presented in this paper provides a different perspective on the
subject. It is structured like a toolbox, containing a clear classification of the technical working principles that plants use to generate motion. With the working principles abstracted, it is no longer necessary to dive deep into the inner workings of plants.
The Scopus and Web of Science databases have been systematically searched for
compliant plant movements. Plants mainly move by reallocating water, either actively via osmosis or passively via hygroscopic tissue. In compliant plant mechanisms, these basic movement initiators bring about deformations of plant parts. These movements are classified according to their goal: does the plant move quasi-static or dynamic? And does the plant only use a mechanism or does it rely on the gradual storage and fast release of elastic energy as well? Quasi-static movements are often only mechanical and reversible, while dynamic movements rely on energy storage and are often irreversible due to their failure-based release. A bilayer structure in one form or another is present in almost all mechanisms, proving its large adaptability to various circumstances. This
adaptability is achieved by the various configurations of the two layers, including
fibre-orientation and cellular set-up.
Existing bio-inspired devices are classified according to the same system. This
enables identification of plant mechanisms that are already suited for implementation and exposes plant movements that are not yet used in the human world. Additionally, a lot could be gained from copying mechanisms on a cellular level rather than on a macroscopic level. Most importantly, a change in mindset needs to happen in order to fully benefit the intricate mechanisms that the plant world has to offer.

Compliant Shell Mechanisms
Morphing Structures
Bio-inspired
Plant Mechanisms

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Student theses

student report

© 2020 S.T. Joosten