Nature: best teacher for business

Business Mirror 22 May 10;

What do Velcro, Michael Phelps’s sharkskin swimsuit and the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380, have in common? The answer rests in a growing field of scientific study through which modern engineers, scientists and architects are looking not at what we can extract from the natural world but what we can learn from it...

Have you ever heard of “biomimicry” or biologically inspired engineering? Simply put, it’s the study and imitation of nature’s best ideas to help solve human challenges. It’s why that now- famous swimsuit was able to replicate a shark’s ability to reduce friction and stay clean, properties that not only made Phelps even slicker in the water, but also protects bacteria-sensitive surfaces in hospitals.

Over 30 percent of known species worldwide are currently under threat. For aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the potential loss for our planet and future generations is already disastrous, but what’s more it also means the loss of vital sources of inspiration and innovation. In the last 40 years, technological innovation has reduced aircraft fuel burn and emissions by 70 percent and noise by 75 percent. Today the aviation industry contributes 2 percent of all manmade CO2 emissions and continues to seek technological solutions to help reduce that impact even further—and nature might just provide the answers.

The natural world has, of course, always been a source of inspiration for the aviation industry, ever since Leonardo da Vinci first started drawing planes and helicopters some 500 years ago. His intriguing designs were based on continuing observations of the world around him. But can nature truly continue to inspire ideas to help shape the eco-efficient industry of the future? How?

A growing number of aeronautical innovations are inspired by a vast range of natural structures, organs and materials; the tried-and-tested patterns in the natural world.



The leaf, the eagle and the wing

The structure of the surface of lotus leaves is designed to keep it clean and dry in damp humid conditions, causing rainwater to run off and take any dirt with it. Known as “superhydrophobicity” or “the lotus effect”, these properties have inspired coatings for cabin fittings that shed water in beads, taking contaminants with them, which improves hygiene and reduces the amount of water needed.

And in the same way that sea birds sense gust loads in the air with their beak and adjust the shape of their wing feathers to suppress lift, probes on the new Airbus A350 XWB detect gusts ahead of the wing and deploy movable surfaces for more efficient flight.

So what about the A380 mentioned earlier? Well, engineers had a lot to learn from the Steppe Eagle. The eagle’s wings can’t be too long, or its turning circle will take it outside the thermal—a rising column of warm air about 20 meters wide on which it relies to soar high in the sky. The eagle’s wings perfectly balance maximum lift with minimum length. It can manipulate the feathers at the tips, curling them upward until they are almost vertical to create a “winglet,” a natural adaptation that acts as a barrier against the vortex for highly efficient flight.

A380 engineers faced almost the same problem—only this time the issue wasn’t turning inside thermals, it was turning inside airports! How could they create enough lift for the world’s largest passenger aircraft but still fit inside airports, where the size limit is 80 meters. If built to a conventional design, the wingspan of the A380 would have had to be about 3 meters longer to create the lift needed to get the fuselage into the air. That’s because “wing-tip” vortices, created by high pressure air leaks from under the wing, around the ends, mean the tips don’t provide any lift, so the wing has to be longer. But thanks to small devices known as “winglets”, which mimic the upward movement of the eagle’s feathers, the A380’s wings are just 79.8 meters—keeping them 20 cm inside that all-important airport limit. But, in fact, the technique is so effective, that Airbus applies the same theory to all its aircraft even though they are much smaller—with the wing of an A320 being the same size as just the vertical tail fin of the A380!

“Nature remains a source of innovation, but it is about so much more than mimicking birds or flying animals.” That’s how Frederic Picard, Airbus head of Physical Design Process, Methods and Tools Program, puts it. “It is about building on the diversity of the natural patterns available. In giving us these solutions, nature has once again evolved to protect its future: Facing environmental changes, nature banks on its capital of biodiversity to adapt and the aviation industry relies on the capital of biodiversity to renew itself.”

Aviation has been called “the real World Wide Web” because it interlinks so many facets that drive global social and economic development. So if air travel does hold the key to a more prosperous future, perhaps it is nature itself that can help aviation unlock and share the benefits of both a more connected and sustainable world.

What all this shows, is that nature is a library from which industry can learn. Pointing to vitally important examples in industries such as biomedicine, nanotechnology and materials science, Airbus’s biomimicry engineers ask how many industries can afford not to protect the resources that may hold the key to the future innovation of competitive products and sustainable growth? It’s a compelling point.

Many people know that biodiversity loss could act as a catalyst for issues such as water scarcity, soil and coastal erosion, population displacement, disease and uncertain food security. But more people need to understand that it also means losing the potential to find innovative solutions to challenges faced by humankind.

In this, the International Year of Biodiversity, Airbus, for instance, is working with the United Nations Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity to support The Green Wave program. The Green Wave encourages young people to plant a tree or celebrate the nature around them at 10 hours on May 22 each year, which is International Day of Biodiversity. As the 10 o’clock celebration passes through the world’s time zones, it creates a “Green Wave” of awareness and activity from east to west around the planet, bringing together young people from around the world as they upload photos, videos and stories about their Green Wave activity. n



This special feature on biomimicry was written by David Hills, senior manager, Flight Physics Research of Airbus, to highlight how some businesses worldwide are taking the cue from nature to improve their work while helping preserve the planet. It is being made available exclusively to BusinessMirror on the occasion of World Biodiversity Day, celebrated every May 22.