ELiSE - Evolutionary Light Structure Engineering

To use marine biogenic structures for technical applications, we have developed a method to generate model data for improved leightweight constructions. The basis for this is a systematic screening of optimized marine structures. The method, which is called Evolutionary Light structure Engineering (ELiSE), produces customized structural solutions for many challenges in lightweight engineering, for example in the automotive and aerospace industries. 

The department Marine Structures uses different tools and methods from biology and engineering to analyse, modificate and optimize the biological structures:

• Sample material (radiolarians, diatoms)
• Cultures (key species, typical forms)
• Micromechanics (crash tests)
• Feeding experiments
• Microscopy (LM, SEM, CLSM, TEM)
• Material properties (nanoindentation, calculation)
• CAD (Computer-Aided Design), 3D models, 3D database
  (Including SolidWorks, CATIA V5)
• FEA (Finite Element Analysis)
  (Including NASTRAN, PATRAN, Marc / Mentat, HyperWorks, SFE concept)
• CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics)
  (Including OpenFOAM)
• Genetic algorithms, evolutionary strategies
• Rapid Prototyping