Nature-Inspired Inventions · Volume 015
Bird Skeletons
Lightweight Aerospace Lattice Structures
Ask most people why birds can fly and many will mention hollow bones. It is true that many flying birds have hollow, air-filled bones. But the full story is more interesting and more useful to engineers. Research has shown that bird bones are, on average, denser than mammal bones, and that the skeleton as a whole is not dramatically lighter as a fraction of body mass than in mammals of similar size. What birds do exceptionally well is put bone material where it carries load, shape it efficiently, and fuse and reinforce bones so that the skeleton is stiff and strong for its weight.
- Price
- $6.99
- Format
- PDF ebook
- Length
- 31 pages
- Edition
- First Edition
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Inside this volume
- Introduction: Light Where It Counts
- The Bird Skeleton
- Bone as an Adaptive Structural Material
- The Mechanics of Lightweight Structures
- History of Lightweight Lattice Structures
- Translating Bird Skeletons Into Engineering
- Design Tools
- Manufacturing
- Ten Bird-Skeleton-Inspired Design Concepts
- Testing Lightweight Structures
- Failure Modes and Limitations
- Approval, Intellectual Property and Market
- Design Workbook
- Case Study — A Lighter Drone Motor Arm
Plus appendices of formulas and rules of thumb, common reader questions, a glossary and further reading.
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