Problem and Solution

 

Problem: Natrual disasters have played a huge toll around the world and can change a person's whole life in a matter of minutes. On average, 40 000-50 000 people die per year due to natural disatsers, with affected areas often having billions of dollars to pay in structrual damages. In developing countries, proper methods and materials are not always used in infrastructure to protect citizens living in that community from such events. Infrastructure failure during natural disasters might determine your death.

Solution: By using biomimicry, I can develop infrastructure designs that are structrally stable, feasible, more effecient, and is able to prevent the damage a natual disaster may cause on current commerical structures.

Introduction

 

Over the course of 2024 and the years before that, many natural disasters have took place. These disasters have taken thousands of lives and left many families broken. Most of the disasters caused great amounts of structural damage, leaving societies and governments incredibly high prices to pay. Though many of these disasters could have been prevented by developing the appropriate structural design for the area it was built in. 

An example of one that I can personally relate to is the Wayanad Landslide that took place on July 30, 2024 in Kerala, India, the state that I was born in. Heavy rainfall triggered multiple giant landslides to occur washing away homes, bridges, an entire town, and taking the lives of many unsuspecting innocent people. As barely any homes were left, it left hundreds of people stranded, waiting for hours to get help. As one of the largest natural disasters to ever occur in Kerala, I began to wonder could we have prevented less damage to the the towns and homes affected by the landslide? My solution was by taking natural ideas on how organisms dealt with such setbacks to their structures and incorporating their methods into building designs that will prevent structural failure. 

• This picture shows the area before and after the landslide took place.

• By using Biomimicry, I’m going to create multiple designs and test which ones works best through a couple of factors. Based on the information, I will determine which biomimicry design should be used for infrastructure.

 

Source: The Wayanad Landslide: Catastrophic Event and Its Aftermath. (n.d.). https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wayanad-landslide-catastrophic-event-its-aftermath-abishek-arokiasamy-l0roc

Petley, D. (2024, October 17). A first analysis of the 30 July 2024 Wayanad landslide in India. Eos.org. https://eos.org/thelandslideblog/wayanad-4

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What is Biomimicry?

 

Biomimicry is the concept of learning and mimicking natural ideas and strategies to incorporate and improve the human society. 

   

Biomimicry involves three basic components to be achieved properly. These components are emulation, ethical framework, and (re)connection. 

 

• Emulation: The process of learning or observing natural concepts to allow humanity to build and incorporate more useful design solutions. 

 

• Ethical Framework: The responsibility to use knowledge gained from nature to create solutions to conserve nature. 

 

• (Re)connection: Acknowledging that human life is not separate from nature which is affected and affects all organisms in Earth’s ecosystems. By reconnecting with nature, your are better able to appreciate how life works and incorporate these natural designs into man-made designs. 

The Kingfisher(bird at the top) inspired the design for the Japanese bullet train because when kingfishers dived in the water to hunt for fish, their beaks created low pressure waves, making them quieter and faster. This inspired the bullet train design to be really fast yet quiet.

 

Source: What is Biomimicry. (n.d.). https://biomimicry.org/inspiration/what-is-biomimicry/.

Kingfisher Bird Facts | Alcedo Atthis. (n.d.). RSPB. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/kingfisher

The Kingfisher and the bullet train – In the news. (n.d.). GTAC. https://gtac.edu.au/the-kingfisher-and-the-bullet-train-in-the-news/

Japanese bullet trains to carry freight in response to COVID-19. (2020, April 8). Springwise. https://springwise.com/coronavirus/japanese-bullet-trains-to-carry-freight-in-response-to-covid-19/

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Solid, Shell and Frame Structures

 

Through my research I found the 3 basic types of structures. These include:

 

• Solid Structures- Structures built off the same material that’s strong and sturdy throughout and are placed in a repeated pattern to ensure stability. An example of this are the pyramids or concrete dams.

 

• Frame Structures- Structures built through multiple different components/pieces placed together to ensure stability and strength. These pieces are joined together to almost create a “skeleton” or framework for the structure. An example of this is a bicycle or the internal frames in a building.

 

• Shell Structures- Structure made out of a thin and often curved material but have great strength and rigidity. Though they are better to hold the weight of masses with a higher surface area, having a heavy weight placed at a single point in a shell structure can crack a shell structure. An example of this are eggshells or a bicycle helmet.  

(Source: n.d.). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faoqUN4c4cw 

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Rules that ensure a structure fulfills its purpose

 

To ensure the stability and efficiency of a structure, many things have to come in play. These can be separated into 4 different categories which include:

 

• Forces- How a structure reacts to magnitude, direction, the point of application and the plane of application.

 

• Structure design- How the structure is designed to ensure stability. These include symmetry, external forces, material use, and design and construction

 

• Materials- This category determines what materials need to be used to ensure that the structure does its intended purpose. Factors that come into consideration are strength, flexibility, and durability of the materials used.

 

• Extra Factors- This includes the cost of building the structure, what steps have to be taken to make sure no errors occur, the environmental impact of the structure which could be based on the impact of the materials used or how the structure reacts to external factors such as weather.

(Source: n.d.). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faoqUN4c4cw 

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  Forces

 

Magnitude- When talking about structures, this refers to the amount/ strength of the force being applied on a structure. For example, small gust of wind exerts a small magnitude of force onto a structure while something like a tornado may exert a large magnitude of force onto a structure.

Direction- This represents where the force is being applied from. This means depending on where the force is applied, the object that its being applied to will react in the opposite direction. For example, if you were to kick a ball, you are applying force from behind the ball to move it forward.

Point and Plane of application- The point of application refers to the direct location of the force applied onto the object. For example if you were to try to snap a pencil, it's a lot easier to snap it through the middle then for one side. The plane of application refers to the invisible surface within the object that corresponds to where the force was applied. The point refers more to exterior forces while the plane refers more to interior forces. 

Source: (n.d.). Introduction to Structures: Types, Stability, Centre of Gravity, Forces, and More! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e_7Pn_xKZo

Source(bottom left image): (n.d.). https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/hands-breaking-pencil-half-1206122341

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Structure design

 

Symmetry- It is often recommended when building a structure, to keep it symmetrical. Other than the aesthetic benefit it has on the structure, it helps provide equal balance distribution around the structure so that a certain part of the structure does not become weak. 

 

External Forces- These include factors that the structure has to withstand and stand through. This can can be wind, earthquakes, water damage, erosion, snow etc. It doesn’t always have to be weather but things that may hinder the performance/stability of a structure.

 

Material Use- This is talking about the types of materials used. This could relate to the feasibility of the materials, its availability, it efficiency, how well it works against external factors and its impact on the environment. For example, if you are building a structure where it often hails, you don’t want to use a material for roofing that's very vulnerable to hail. This is the reason why you want to have your structure built out of materials that have the correct amount of strength, flexibility, and durability.

 

Design and Construction- Finally this category is a mix of all the things that need to be considered when trying to achieve a perfect structure. Your design and construction should be able to use appropriate materials for your structure, have a stable design, be able to serve its purpose, withstand forces that will hinder its performance, and maintain its center of gravity without collapsing. 

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Incorporating Biomimicry into my Design

 

 

• By mimicking natural concepts, I should be able to create a proper design that can withstand external and internal forces while also following the basic structure design needed to be accomplished to ensures structural stability. 

 

• Before deciding what biological concept I am mimicking, I have to determine what type of structure should I use, shell, solid, or frame? Most man-made structures are either frame or solid. Bridges and walls are solid structures as it use strong materials such as concrete to hold weight and maintain shape. Buildings are often frame structures as they require multiple floors and need extra supports to hold the weight of the structure and the the people inside it. In addition to that, most home are also frame structure as they have a main framework inside before adding exterior and interior over the frame. 

 

• Though shell structures are strong, it's really dependant on the material used and the force that is being applied to it to determine that its efficient. Solid structures have the most strength but often have very little flexibility which can pose as a threat during earthquakes. Frame structures are right in between as they have good flexibility and based on its design, can support or withstand multiple factors. To further ensure its success, the frame structure should have solid materials around it to maintain its strength while still being flexible. For this reason, I decided to mimic natural concepts involving frame structures specifically. 

 

• Through my project I will test 3 different nature inspired design which will include a beehive, a spider web, and a cell wall as well as an average residential building design to see if my design achieves greater structural stability when compared to a normal residential building. 

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Natural Structures(Beehives)

 

• Beehives- Beehives are built when bees produce wax and mold them into circle shaped holes. This wax is melted using the bee’s body heat which stretches out due to surface tension and creates the unique stable hexagonal pattern. This design is so great as the honeycombs provide space for the bee’s, supports holding things such as honey, while the hexagons equally distribute weight, holds its shape and doesn’t waste any space.

 

•  By combining these hexagonal cells into a full scale structure, a beehive is formed. By developing a structure made up of a hexagonal cells, bees are able to maintain a stable structure, use minimum materials, not waste any space and create a stable structure that can withstand many external forces and the wax act as supports to the structure.  

 

• The reason why the hexagonal shape is so structurally stable and can hold weight is because the the junctions of 120 degrees(the angle per side of a hexagon) is the most mechanically stable as the pull of surface tension and force are in balance when they are placed in a hexagonal arrangement. This makes  extremely difficult to any side of the hexagon to collapse unless of extreme force because of the surface tension that's supporting it.

Source: (n.d.). https://geekswipe.net/science/physics/why-honeycomb-cells-are-built-hexagonally/

Source:(n.d.). https://www.planetbee.org/post/buzz-worthy-architecture-how-honey-bees-build-their-hives#:~:text=But%20why%20hexagons%3F,food%20stores%2C%20and%20their%20young.

 

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Natural Structures(Spiderwebs)

 

Spiderwebs- Spiderwebs are well known to maintain its shape due to its extreme ductile and tensile strength of the webs. But on top of this spiders create different webs for different purposes, which could be for catching prey, shelter, mating etc. The 4 main types of webs are the funnel web, orb web, sheet web, and cob/tangle web. 

• The Sheet web is designed to almost mimic a hammock as whenever potential prey fall or fly into the net, the prey get captured to the spider’s web because stickly silk that is wrapped around the web. The sheet web is very thin and is often created by criss-crossing the webs and building them within tall blades of grass or vegetation. As the design is very ununiformed, the web acts as a net and maze for prey that gets captured, making it almost impossible to escape.

 

• Funnel webs are built by making large, flat horizontal webs that have openings on both ends. When a spider feels vibrations of potential prey, it pounces outside the funnel and drags the prey into the funnel.

 

• Tangle webs or cobwebs are webs created by spider that don’t have any specific structure and are just bunched together with other webs. Tangle webs are often attached to a support system like the corner of a seiling. This provides extra support for the web and allows the spider to store multiple prey onto the web without the fear that the weight of the prey may collapse the web. An abandoned tangle web is a cobweb.

 

• Orb webs are the most common type of spider web made by creating a spiral of silk and then creates almost a net by adding vertical pieces of silk the stretch for the center to the outside of the spiral. The web is reinforced by adding arches and layer of webbing outside the spiral.

 

The picture above is the spiral orb web and the web that is going to used for my structure design.

Source:Spiders and their Webs – Acreage Life – Nebraska. (2018, October 1). Acreage Life - Nebraska. https://acreagenebraska.org/2018/10/01/125/

Source:(n.d.). https://spiritualmusclehead.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/walking-into-spiderwebs/

 

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Natural Structures(Cell wall)

• Cell wall- The Cell wall is the exterior barrier or wall found in a plant cell that protects the interior and other components of the cell. A plant cell usually has a primary and a secondary cell wall. In addition to protection, these walls also act as support and maintain the structure of the cell. 

 

• The cell wall is made up of interlocking fibers called Cellulose Microfibril which act as the support/internal framework to maintain the cells shape and hold everything in place. The cell wall becomes stronger, if the plant cell contains more water as it makes the cell wall rigid. The reason the cell wall needs to be strong is to deal with hydrostatic pressure which is the internal force that is applied to the cell when water pressure is greater outside the cell than inside. As water is collected into the cell, the cell wall makes sure it doesn’t escape so the cell wall has to be mechanically strong to stop water from escaping.

The image above shows how the cell wall will adjust based on what type of solution the cell is in and the level of water that is contained in the cell.

Source:Bailey, R. (2024, July 29). Cell Wall Structure and Function. ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/cell-wall-373613

 

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Structural shapes 

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Structure Planning

 

Using Smartdraw, I created 3 different structural designs in addition to the residential building design. 

 

Design 1: I took the aspect of making my framework be based on the 120 degree junctions found in beehives to create a framework that uses space effectively while maintaining support and stability.

 

Design 2: I based this design on the spiral orb web in which all the stress is diverted to the center but surface tension and arches are placed to equalize the stress applied and maintain the structures strength and stability.

 

Design 3: This design is based on the cellulose fibers found in the cell wall that have interlocking, chains of cellulose to help maintain the cell wall’s shape and structure.

When building these designs in real life, the materials could be concrete or steel depending on the availability and location it is built. As wood also works and has good availability, it may not be the strongest and most efficient material when up against external forces like natural disasters.

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Procedure

 

For my designs, I decided to build all of my designs out of toothpicks. To ensure a controlled experiment, I will use the same number of toothpicks for all my designs and make sure the weight of each structure are equal as well. In addition to this, 2 copies of each design will be built in case one of the structures receives any damage during testing.

 

After building all my designs, I will run 3 different tests that will be repeated 4 times to ensure the most accurate of results. 

 

1. One of the tests includes a load test, in which the structures will have loads added upon them until the structure reaches a point where it's no longer capable of holding any more weight. The only materials required are weights or loads that have significant weight.

 

2. The second test is the earthquake test in which I will attach a piece of plywood or a platform to a linear motion track that will move side to side to mimic an earthquake. The speed in which the track moves will increase until the structure falls over. The results will be concluded based on the average speed and time taken for each structure to collapse. The amount of vibration will be recorded using a vibration monitor.

 

3. The third test is a stress test which mimics the force of magnitude a building may receive during a landslide. This will be done by attaching a platform/piece of plywood to a linear actuator or a linear reciprocating motor that will continue to push my structures until they fall down.

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   Materials Required 

Functions of Tests

 

The first picture shows the earthquake test. The structure will be placed on the platform and the linear motion track will start moving side to side to mimic an earthquake. To minimize side to side motion and create more vibrational motion, the settings will be adjusted show that we can increase the speed using a switch, without the platform moving that much of a distance. The Linear motion track will be powered by the battery that is located on the side. Based on the outcome, weights can also be added to the structures.

The second picture shows the stress test where a piece of plywood will be attached to a linear actuator. Using a switch, the linear actuator will horizontally, move forward and push the structure. To ensure that the structure doesn’t move away from the actuator, the structure will be secured to the based with rubber bands so that it can be seen how much force the structure can withstand before it breaks. Based on the outcome, weights can also be added to the structures. The linear actuator is being powered by a 60 w adapter.

The load test will include adding weight to the top of the structure until they collapse.

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Dimensions and Further Info

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Building Stage

At the beginning, I proceded with the original plan og building my structures out of toothpicks, having a height of 12 cm and a width of 6cm.

Building 1.0

-Height:12cm

-Width: 6cm

-Volume 432 cm³(Base x Height x Width= 12 x 6 x 6)

Right after building the out frame using toothpicks, I could already tell that by taking such an approach, no structral stability would be achieved during my tests. The main reasons this approach was a failure was because:

1) The structures were delicate and lightweight, making it hard to do a load test that was easily comparible to real life situations.

2) As the structures itself were relatively small, making designs such as the beehive design would become extremely difficult as the beehive deisgn uses multiple small peices which is were used here, it may not stay intact or not have any effect on the structures stability.

3) As this was the first structure design I began to develop, many inconvenieces and incosistencies arised as:

-Some joints of the structres had more glue than other's, causing one side to be heavier.

-Certain toothpicks overlapped others creating faults in symmetry and maintaining structral stability

-Certain toothpicks were not placed correctly causing weaknesses in parts of the structure. This eventually resulted in bending to occur.

I changed my designs so that they were bigger and more accurate. To ensure this zi used barbecue sticks which were taller and thicker as well as added support sticks at the middle of the structures. All of the structre used a total of 29 barbecue sticks. 

Total Number of skewers used per structure: 29

Height: 30 cm

Width: 10cm 

Volume: 3000cm³(b x h x w= 30 x 10 x 10)

Beehive Structure:

Design Result:                                                             Design Plan:

                   

Instead of having a total of 9 hexagone per column, I readuced to 8 due to the fact that 9 would not fit and it would gove over the targeted 29 barbecue sticks.

 

Spiderweb Structure:

Design Result:                                                             Design Plan:

                   

I changed the design from having 12 arches per face to 10 arches to meet the targeted 29 barbecue sticks in total for the structure In addition to this, I changed the design of the central web arches from being curved to straight as the parts of the barbecue sticks were too small to bend without breaking.

Cell Wall:

Design Result:                                                             Design Plan:

                   

Instead of having 6 pillars per face and 7 diagonal supports per face, I redesigned it so that the structure had only 3 diagonal supports with no vertical columns. This was also to meet th e 29 barbecue stick margin.

Basic Building Model:

Design result:                                                             Design Plan:

                

Instead of having 10 horizontal rows per face and 5 columns per face, I changed it so that there were 6 horizontal rows per face and only 3 vertical columns. This change was also done to meet the 29 sticks margin.

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Building the Tests

I have 3 different types of tests. This includes the earthquake tests, force test, and load test.

Earthquakes Test:

Originally, I planned to use a linear motion track to create the earthquake simulator but I change my approach because the linear motion track was not readily available, it was not very fast, it was hard to create set vibrations and it was expensive. Due to this, I decided to make my own earthquake simulator based on the one used by DFRobot. In this design, a circular motor that was controlled using a variable resistor, pulled the platform back and forth creating an earthquake simulation. The platform was secured using rubber bands and has wheels underneath. WIth this design, it removed the need to use plywood as the simulator could be built using cadboard. If needed, the simulator can be advanced in future testing by making out of plywood.

This is the website I used to build my simulator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWlnYXfWSHI

Earthquake simulator without motor:

The original motor used was a circular motor with 25 000 rmp(Rotations Per Minute), posing as too powerful to run the earthquake test.

12 000 rpm(3-12 volt) motor:

The new motor I used was a 9 volt, 4500 rpm motor. It was a smaller dc motor often used in toys and it was a lot more suitable for my earhquake simulator. 

New motor attached with a 9 volt battery and a switch:

The speed of the motor will be adjustable by adding a UR sensor into the circuit that contains a dial to adjust the speed. This sensor came with the microbit.

UR sensor:

Instead of using a vibration meter, I programmed a microbit to measure the strength of vibration coming from the x and y axis. When hooked to my computer, it will display a real time graph measuring the amount of vibration being detected, much like a seismograph. More leds on the microbit will light up depending on the strength of vibration and the direction it is coming from. During testing, the microbit will be secured to the platform.

Mircobit:

 

Force Test:

For the force test, a linear acuator will be attached to a wooden block that will push the side of the building until it falls over. This is to replicate the force a building may recieve on one side when coming in contact with something such as a landslide, avalanche, or tsunami.

The linear acuator can extended to a maximum of 30 mm and can exert a force up to 150N. It will be powered using a 60w adapter and controlled using a switch which can extendn or retract the acuator.

Linear acuator:

Load Test:

The load test will be conducted last. This is in case any of the structures fail, the structures will not be broken before completing the rest of the tests. During the load test, weight will be added to each structure and observed for 30 seconds. If the structures succeed, the load weight will be increased. The load weight will gradually increase until the loads run out. If the loads run out and all the structures are still standing, data will be colleceted based on that. An additional test will be run where the structures are placed in the earthquake and force test while having loads on them.

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End Result

After collecting all my data, the best structral design will be based on which of the structures had the best average success rate out of all of the tests. Every test except for the load test is done 3 times. If any two designs have the same average score, they both will be placed as the best designs.

 

Through the tests, I can determine which of the designs will reach all of the targeted outcomes. The targeted outcomes were being structurally stable, cost effective and effecient. As all the structures use 29 barbecue sticks, we can count that which ever structure accomplishes the best structral stability will also accomplish using less materials as the winning structure had more stability than other designs that used the same resources. This also factors in being cost effective and effecient as even with less materials, my design would accomplish better structural stability when compared to an average residential building. 

Successes

I was able to build all my designs even with the amount of re-designing. 

I was able to finish building all my testing requirments as well as recieve all the materials that I needed.

I was able to program the microbit effectively to measure vibration, even with my very limited knowlegde with microbits.

All my designs were build effectively, accomplishing most of the targeted goals without a lot of visible error.

Sources of Error

As I was very unfamiliar with designing structures and platforms to do so, it took me a very long time to find a proper platform in which I could use for designing. In addition to that, because of my prior lack of knowledge in designing, I had redesign all my designs multiple times to create a nature inspired design that was still structurally stable. The design that I had to re-do the most was the spider web design. As I wanted to create a design based on the spiral orb web, it took me multiple tries until I reached a basic understanding of a design that was like the spiral orb web, could be structurally stable and met the number of materials to do so. 

When I was first building the exterior frame of all the designs(bolded black parts), there was a lot of inconsistency in my design. As I used a toothpick for each segment of my design, the pillars were not straight and was often disoriented. Also when making of this some segments got glued on top of another as shown in the bottom circle which created imbalance. Finally since I used hot glue to connect all the parts together, the amount of glue I used was different for each structure which made the weights unequal. To solve the inconsistency in the pillars, I changed my design so that for the pillars, I use one long toothpick instead of two smaller ones so that bending doesn’t occur. I also made sure when attaching two toothpicks together, I didn’t attach one over the other. To equalize the weight of all my designs, I tried to use the same amount of glue as well as make sure I used the same amount of toothpicks for each design.

I also had to setback of when I began putting together all my designs as it was very difficult to maintain the same number of toothpicks and ensure the same wight. In addition to this, when cutting toothpicks, it created a lot of mess and some pieces became too small which caused me to restart. To fix this, instead of making everything made out of toothpicks, I decided to only use toothpick for the outer frame while using silver beading wire to build the interior framework. The reason I made this decision was because it created less of a mess, the wire was both strong and flexible, and was a lot easier to ensure the same amount of wire was used. To add, beading wire was much better and easier when making the arches for the spider web design.

 

When I finished building my structres out of toothpicks, I had to redesign all of them again as making them out of toothpick caused them to be extremely delicate and would make it very hard to conduct tests that well replicated real life situations. Because of this, I built all my structures again using barbecue sticks. In addition to this, I also added horizontal support pillar so my structures would not be afected by the forces of torsion and bending. The newly built structures were 30 cm tall, and 10 cm wide with a volume of 3000cm³. To add I needed to make sure that all the designs used the same number of materials and weight. I settled on using 29 barbecue sticks for each structure but to meet this I hd to again redesign all my designs so that they used less pillars and horizonal rows as doing so would exceed the targeted limit.

 

When making a spider web design, I switched from using silver beading wire for the arches to using actual barbecue sticks as using beading wire would change the overall weight of the design when compared to the other designs and wuld not be a total of 29 barbecue sticks. Then main problem with this was it was almost impossible to bend small peices of the barbecue sticks without breaking it. The solution I found to this was soaking them in water so that the sticks would not be as rigid. Though this method worked, it was still hard to bend the smaller peices without breaking them, forcing me to redesign the spider web structure so that the central arches were straight instead of curved.

 

When making the beehive design, the small peices would eventually come apart after gluing them as enough surface tension was not met to hold them in place. This forced me to change my building approach from attaching each individual peice at a time to the frame to making one of the faces on the structure at a time and then attaching the side to the frame. Though this was more effective, as more peices could be placed to hold it together, it was a lot more time consuming.

 

When first programming my microbit, I was not able to accomplish a lot due to my lack of experience. I did not know how I was supposed to make the microbit measure the strength of vibration. The best I was able to do was make it measure acceleration as I had not used Micsoft Makecode in the past. Eventually using the video below, I was able to correctly learn how to make it measure vibration while also graphing it.

Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0rbWPEnVts

During the building of my earthquake simulator, I had the setback of getting a dc motor that was too powerful for the earthquake simulator. This setback made me loose a lot of time as now I needed to get a new motor that could work for the simulator. Eventually I was able to get a dmaller dc motor from a stem engineering kit that was more applicable to the task I was trying to achieve.

 

The problem that arised afer getting the new motor was that it was not as advanced as the motor was meant for a much younger targeted age group. Because of this, I could not create a circuit that was able to adjust the speed of the motor as the kit did not contain any type of variable resistor or speed dial. Using the microbit kit, I was able to find a ur sensor that could be attached to the circuit to adjust the speed. The main problem was that it was very hard to keep the conducting wires in place without soldering it. This wasted a lot of my time and even in the end the circuit was not always working, probably due to how much short circuits were created. This caused me to go back to the original circuit with the dc motor, 9v battery, and switch. 

 

Even though significant experimentation still need to be accomplished, the designs itself are definitely structurally stable. As natural concepts are already being implemented to structures today to enhance its performance, my designs could be used to improve the structural stability of structures in our world. In addition to this, my structures have an effective design that organisms have used to not only maintain its structure, but to protect itself against external factors. This can be greatly valuable during times of natural disasters, where a great amount of force is applied to structures in the area the disaster took place in. By developing such solutions, construction workers, city planners, architects and people involved with infrastructure can create better strategies to prepare their community for untimely events that could cause havoc to their city.

 

(n.d.). Introduction to Structures: Types, Stability, Centre of Gravity, Forces, and More! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e_7Pn_xKZo

(n.d.). https://mrdenney.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/7/6/13767597/lesson_10.3_classifying_figures.pdf

(n.d.). https://aidanross7.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/s14-design-and-analyse-basic-structures/

(n.d.). https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/hands-breaking-pencil-half-1206122341

(n.d.). https://prezi.com/udhbr_n4vxlh/forces-acting-on-structures/#:~:text=Magnitude%20is%20the%20strength%20of,which%20occur%20on%20the%20exterior.

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I would like to acknowledge my parents for their support throughout my project in helping me with building and displaying my project. I would like to thank my science teacher and and scince fair coordinator Mr. DeGelder for his help throughout my project and for the magnificant opportunity.