Marine Bionics: Efficient structures for sustainable lightweight design

Dr Christian Hamm, Head of Unit Bio-inspired Lighweight Design and Functional Morphology at the Alfred Wegener Institute.

Bioeconomy

Plankton Ecology

Biomimetics

Over millions of years, nature has produced highly optimized structures that are lightweight, stable, and resource-efficient. Marine organisms such as diatoms, radiolarians, sea shells, and corals in particular have complex, fractal structures that are characterized by an excellent strength-to-weight ratio. Their geometric diversity, often at the micro- and nanometric level, is of particular interest for highly effective lightweight construction. 

The field of bionic lightweight design investigates the mechanical properties of marine organisms and, in this context, their ecology and biogeochemistry. This involves examining complex 3D structures of marine organisms using innovative microscopic and digital tools to gain insights in their properties and integrate them into technical product development processes. The focus is on stable lightweight constructions, as these occur in nature in many highly effective ways and significantly improve the development of economical and sustainable products and structures in industry. At the AWI, methods, patents, and VDI guidelines have been developed, and approximately 100 industrial projects and contracts have been carried out. Furthermore, this led to the development of the successful DeepTech company Synera GmbH from the Virtual Helmholtz Institute PlanktonTech and the AWI affiliated institute Imare GmbH.