Structural Optimisation and Fractal Design

Hierarchical design is ubiquitous in nature. Material properties can be tailored by having structural features on many length scales. In our recent work, we demonstrate that through the use of hierarchical, self-similar design principles, advantageous structural properties can be obtained. We show that the scaling of the amount of material required for stability against the loading can be altered in a systematic manner. A particular structure is fabricated through rapid prototyping, and we obtain the optimal generation number (for our specific structure) for any given value of loading.