Lightweight Design for Thin Walled Cylindrical Shell Based on Action Mechanism of Bamboo Node

Abstract

Lightweight design is needed for many engineering structures, but conventional design methods cannot always meet requirements. Natural organisms have developed many types of structures with excellent properties and ingenious construction, and they can provide many new design ideas. In this paper, a thinwalled cylindrical shell, one of the most common structures, is designed to resist buckling based on the study of bionics. First, the structure and function of bamboo node are described, and a statistical analysis of internode lengthtodiameter ratio in bamboo is performed to investigate structural characteristics of bamboo node. Then, through buckling analysis of three relevant experimental models, the action mechanism of bamboo node is investigated, and two rules for application of this structure in engineering are proposed. Finally, a bionic design method is introduced, and a lightweight design for a thinwalled cylindrical shell based on this method is presented. A comparison between the bionic shell and a conventional one shows that the weight was reduced by as much as 20.5%.