Material-oriented engineering for eco-optimized structures — a new design approach

Abstract

The modern industry allows producing composite materials with a broad spectrum of mechanical properties applicable in medicine, aviation, and automotive industries. However, the building industry generates a substantial part of budgets worldwide and utilizes vast material amounts. At the same time, the engineering practice has revealed that innovative technologies require new design concepts related to developing materials with mechanical properties tailored for structural purposes. It is the opposite of the current design philosophy when design solutions allow applying only the existing typical materials, the physical characteristics of which, in general, are imperfectly suiting the technical requirements, leading to an inefficient increase of the material amounts for safety’s sake. Moreover, some structural solutions are barely possible using standardized approaches. This work illustrates the implementation of the proposed adaptive design concept and discusses the design perspectives.