Bio-Inspired Design for Structural and Sustainable Applications: 2nd Edition

A special issue of Biomimetics (ISSN 2313-7673).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 921

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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Interests: multi-scale material modeling and characterization; design of composites and nano-composites; characterization of materials/composites/nanostructured thin films and coatings; mechanical strength evaluation and failure prediction; metal forming processing design/testing/modeling/optimization
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Current technologies rely on standard and traditional design and manufacturing techniques and cannot effectively solve the pressing problems and challenges. Bio-inspired design uses approaches from life sciences, processes and strategies, physical sciences, mathematical sciences, engineering, and medical sciences. It opens a new field to create innovative products, technologies, and manufacturing methods. It can help improve performance, reduce energy consumption, and increase durability and/or sustainability. This Special Issue aims to be a leading topic in bio-inspired design, focusing on the design process of promoting technological innovation rather than traditional approaches and offering potentially transformative solutions to those problems and challenges that face our near future and future societies. Bio-inspired design solutions are widely used in different engineering disciplines. However, in structural engineering, these solutions mainly involve bio-inspired structures/microstructures, shapes, and topologies of materials, and they are mainly applied in optimizing stiffness, strength, lightweight, toughness, etc. In sustainable applications, these solutions mainly involve addressing challenges in the natural environment, including designing environmentally friendly materials and degrading pollutant materials.

Prof. Dr. Zhong Hu
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • bio-inspired design
  • additive manufacturing
  • structural applications
  • sustainable materials
  • degradable materials
  • pollution
  • climate change
  • mechanical properties
  • topology optimization
  • computer modeling
  • microstructure
  • biomaterial
  • representative volume element (RVE)
  • lattice structure
  • porous structure

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

24 pages, 4543 KiB  
Article
Integrating Sustainability into Biologically Inspired Design: A Systematic Evaluation Model
by Ze Bian, Yufei Zhang, Huan Lin, Yuan Zhu and Jie Zhang
Biomimetics 2025, 10(2), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics10020111 - 12 Feb 2025
Viewed by 638
Abstract
Biologically inspired product design (BIPD) inherently encompasses the concept of sustainability. It acquires inspiration from natural organisms, and the references in aspects such as form, structure, and function typically contribute to efficient resource utilization and environmentally friendly coexistence. However, past studies have mainly [...] Read more.
Biologically inspired product design (BIPD) inherently encompasses the concept of sustainability. It acquires inspiration from natural organisms, and the references in aspects such as form, structure, and function typically contribute to efficient resource utilization and environmentally friendly coexistence. However, past studies have mainly evaluated from the perspective of designers and researchers, which is relatively subjective. It is difficult to meet the real needs of industry and market. At the same time, the method of establishing indicators is not scientific enough, and the importance of indicators is not ranked. This research integrates the concept of sustainable design into the BIPD evaluation system, comprehensively considering the evaluation indices of different stakeholders such as sustainable designers, industrial designers, and users and decision-makers of design companies. By employing the analytic hierarchy process, a complete and systematic evaluation index model is constructed. This model can comprehensively and accurately screen and evaluate design proposals during the conceptual design stage of BIPD. Through this approach, it effectively averts resource waste caused by incorrect decisions in the production process, optimizes resource allocation, meets user requirements and vigorously promotes the sustainable development of BIPD throughout its entire life cycle. Full article
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