Thin-Walled Structures 171 (2022) 108666

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Thin-Walled Structures
journal homepage: [Link]/locate/tws

Full length article

Application of bionic design inspired by bamboo structures in collapse

resistance of thin-walled cylindrical shell steel tower
Xihui Wang, Bo Song ∗
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Beijing International Cooperation Base for Science and Technology-Aseismic Research of the Rail Transit Engineering in the Strong Motion
Area, Beijing 100083, China

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: In recent years, with the popularization of high-performance structures, higher requirements are put forward
Bionic design for design theory and method. Based on the analysis of the relationship between macro characteristics of
Thin-walled cylindrical shell the structure and mechanical properties of bamboo, a bionics design method of cylindrical shell structure is
Anti-collapse mechanism
proposed in this paper. Through curve fitting, the variation of geometric parameters such as stiffener spacing,
Shaking table test
bamboo body diameter, and wall thickness along the height were obtained. The bamboo body bending stiffness
was calculated. Based on the principle of equivalent change of bending stiffness, the bamboo-inspired design
is realized by changing the wall thickness and setting the stiffeners. In the case of small deformation, the
mechanical performance of the bamboo-inspired structure is close to that of an ordinary structure. After the
structure reaches the yield stage, the advantage of the bamboo-inspired structure is more apparent, and the
ductility coefficient of the bamboo-inspired structure is about twice that of an ordinary structure. The bamboo-
inspired structure has good adaptability to large deformation due to its good ductility mechanism, which can
be used to improve the collapse resistance of the structure under large deformation. With the example of a
thin-walled cylindrical shell in a thermal power plant, the application analysis of bamboo-inspired design is
carried out. The rationality of the bamboo-inspired structure is verified by the shaking table test. The test
results show that the bamboo-inspired cylindrical shell structure mainly undergoes local buckling and slight
bending of the tower body under the action of the high-intensity rare earthquake. Still, no collapse failure
occurs, which meets the performance index of no collapse under the condition of large deformation.

1. Introduction imitating bamboo principle that any two adjacent hoop-layers have
equal stability and lateral displacement [4].
Bamboo is a natural high-rise structure in nature, which is rarely Architectural design office of SOM applies the bamboo-inspired
broken in earthquakes and typhoons. Bamboo can still stand upright design concept to high-rise towers [5]. The tower is divided into
under large displacement. Therefore, the bionic design of cylindrical eight sections in the height direction, and the length of the bottom
shell structures based on bamboo structural characteristics has great section is small to enhance the structural stability [6]. Fu et al. studied
significance.
the relationship between the structural characteristics and mechanical
As for the relationship between the structural characteristics and
characteristics of bamboo, optimized the transverse ribs of box girder
mechanical properties of bamboo. Shima, et al. decompose the shape
on the right track, and proposed a reasonable layout method of stiffen-
of bamboo from the perspective of structural mechanics. The bamboo
ers, which greatly reduced the number of stiffeners of the bionic box
structure can be regarded as a cylindrical shell with circumferential
stiffeners. It is proved by theoretical calculation that the existence of girder [7]. Based on the statistical analysis of bamboo structure charac-
slubs can effectively restrain the bending of the cross-section [1]. As teristics, Xing et al. proposed a design method of the bionic thin-walled
an independent discipline, bionics has been widely used in the field cylindrical shell to resist buckling. A comparison between the bionic
of structural design [2,3]. Considering that the structural type and shell and a conventional one shows that the weight was reduced by as
load feature of vertical lifting tridimensional parking structures are much as 20.5% [8]. A novel bionic bamboo-shaped tubular structure
similar to those of bamboo, a new structural arrangement style of (BBSTS) was proposed to improve the energy absorption performance
tridimensional parking structure was presented, that is to set hoop- of composite tubes under oblique crushing. A finite element model that
layers inspired bamboo knots at their proper height according to the accounts for both intralaminar and interlaminar failure initiation and

∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
E-mail addresses: xihuiw@[Link] (X. Wang), songbo@[Link] (B. Song).

[Link]
Received 16 August 2021; Received in revised form 3 November 2021; Accepted 4 November 2021
Available online 8 December 2021
0263-8231/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
X. Wang and B. Song Thin-Walled Structures 171 (2022) 108666

Fig. 1. Investigation and measurement of geometric characteristics.

Fig. 2. Macroscopic geometric characteristics of bamboo.

damage evolution was established to investigate the crashworthiness Zhang et al. proposed for the first time a bionic beam composed
of BBSTS subjected to oblique loading [9]. Zheng et al. used Analytic of imitated bamboo tubes and imitated bamboo diaphragms, whose
Hierarchy Process (AHP) to calculate the similarity between bamboo design was inspired by the macroscopic structure of bamboo. Based on
and wind power towers, and innovatively designed bamboo-inspired Euler–Bernoulli beam theory, a bending model of the bionic bamboo
beam was established. The correctness of the model is verified by
wind power towers. In addition, finite element analysis is used to
comparison with the calculation result of the finite element method.
compare the static and dynamic performance of the bamboo-inspired
The influence of the wall thickness of the imitation bamboo tube,
wind power tower and the original tower. Through the investigation, it the number of bionic bamboo joints, and the wall thickness on the
is suggested that the maximum deformation and maximum stress can bending performance of the bamboo-inspired beam is analyzed [11].
be reduced by 5.93 and 13.75% of the bamboo-inspired wind power Fu et al. are inspired by the microstructure of bamboo. By bionic
tower [10]. design of the cross-section, it is proposed a novel bionic-bamboo tube

2
X. Wang and B. Song Thin-Walled Structures 171 (2022) 108666

where, D is the diameter of bamboo; t is the wall thickness; h is the

spacing of bamboo nodes; x is the height; the unit is m.
It can be seen from Fig. 2 that the wall thickness and diameter of
bamboo decrease linearly along the height direction. Along the height
direction, the slub spacing first increases and then decreases, showing a
parabolic distribution. The middle slub spacing is about three times the
bottom slub spacing, and the top slub becomes denser to overcome the
weight of the upper branches and leaves. Therefore, the slub is adjusted
according to the stress of each part.

2.2. Overturning failure process of bamboo-inspired cylindrical shell

According to the relationship between the geometric parameters

of bamboo in Section 2.1, the numerical analysis model is estab-
lished completely according to the geometric parameters of the bamboo
Fig. 3. Stress–strain double broken line model of steel. structure. Because the main purpose of this paper is to imitate the
macrostructure of bamboo to design the steel cylindrical shell structure,
the material type is consistent with the steel cylindrical shell. The
(BBT), which greatly improves the energy absorption characteristics of material stress–strain relationship adopts the bilinear model of steel,
the structure [12]. In order to increase the axial and lateral energy as shown in Fig. 3. The bilinear model simplifies the plastic stage and
resistance characteristics of the thin-walled tube, Zou et al. introduced a strengthening stage of the material into an oblique line, and the elastic
bionic bamboo design method, and the nonlinear finite element method modulus is E/100.
calculated the numerical example of the bionic structure under axial Q235 is a type of Chinese steel, and its attribute parameters are
and lateral impact load, and the results show bionic design increases shown in Table 1. The outer wall of the model is defined as a shell ele-
the specific energy absorption of the tube [13]. ment, the slub is defined as a solid element, and the bottom boundary
In summary, the inspiration for the bamboo-inspired design method is consolidated. At the same time, an ordinary cylindrical shell with
is mainly inspired by the macroscopic or microscopic structural char- equal mass is established as a comparison.
acteristics of bamboo. At present, the bamboo-inspired design is widely Because the structure of the bamboo-inspired cylindrical shell is
used at the component level, and the bionic design for the overall relatively complicated, the model mass is automatically calculated
structure is relatively rare. The purpose of the bionic design is mainly to by the finite element software first, and then an ordinary cylindrical
improve the compressive buckling performance and energy absorption shell with equal diameter is established according to the principle of
capacity of the structure. There is little research on the collapse resis- equal mass. The dimensions of ordinary cylindrical shells and bamboo-
tance mechanism of the bamboo-inspired structure and the application inspired cylindrical shells are shown in Fig. 4. The ordinary structure
of seismic performance design. is a cylindrical shell of equal diameter, the height is 2.7 m, the wall
As a high-rise thin-walled cylindrical shell structure, bamboo is not thickness is 10 mm, and the diameter is 80 mm. The bottom diameter
easy to collapse even if it has large deformation under external load. of the bamboo-inspired cylindrical shell is 100 mm, the wall thickness
It shows that the stiffness and stiffener of bamboo have better adap- is 10 mm, the top diameter is 60 mm, and the wall thickness is 7 mm.
tive ability to large deformation. This paper analyzes the relationship The diameter and wall thickness changes linearly along with the height.
between the structural characteristics of bamboo and its mechanical Assuming that the wall thickness at a certain height is t, at the same
properties from the macro level. The bamboo-inspired design method height, the thickness of the center of the bamboo joint is 0.5t and the
of cylindrical shell structure is proposed. The application analysis of thickness of the edge is 1.5t.
the bamboo-inspired design of a cylindrical shell steel tower is carried Pushover analysis is a method for evaluating the performance of
out. The failure characteristics and dynamic response of the bamboo- structures from elastoplastic state to ultimate state [14]. The loading
inspired cylindrical shell steel tower were studied by shaking table mode of pushover is to apply axial force first and then monotonic lateral
test. force [15]. There are three loading modes of lateral force: concentrated
force loading, uniform acceleration loading, and modal loading. In
2. A bionic design method based on the characteristics of bamboo this paper, the concentrated load mode is adopted, and the lateral
macrostructure monotonic concentrated force is set at the top of the structure to load
step by step.
2.1. Measurement and analysis of bamboo geometric characteristics Considering the degradation of component stiffness, the arc-length
method is used to solve the problem. The arc-length method assumes
Bamboo can be divided into herbaceous bamboo and woody bam- that the external force is proportional to the load parameter 𝝀. 𝝀 is an
boo according to the degree of stem lignification. Because woody independent scalar, so the arc-length method can be regarded as the
bamboo is generally larger than herbaceous bamboo, the typical woody basic finite element degree of freedom increased by 1. The parameters 𝝀
bamboo is selected as the research object. The investigation and on-site and cumulative incremental solution need to meet the constraints of the
measurement of woody bamboo structures were carried out, as shown arc-length method, and the final number of degrees of freedom remains
in Fig. 1. unchanged [16]. The unbalanced force including load parameters is
The variation of bamboo diameter, slub spacing, and wall thickness expressed as follows:
along the height direction is obtained through actual measurement, 𝐠𝑖 (𝐮𝑖 , 𝜆𝑖 ) = 𝜆𝑖 𝐟𝑒𝑥𝑡 − 𝐟𝑖𝑛𝑡,𝑖 (4)
as shown in Fig. 2. Based on the principle of least square regression
analysis, the calculation formula of each dimension parameter at any The unbalanced force generated by the 𝑖 + 1th iterative calculation
height is obtained. is 0, which is mainly caused by the incremental solution 𝛿𝐮𝑖+1 and
the incremental load parameter 𝛿𝜆𝑖+1 . The relationship between the
𝐷(𝑥) = −0.007𝑥 + 0.0741 (1) incremental solution and the incremental load parameter is as follows:
𝑡(𝑥) = −0.0007𝑥 + 0.0086 (2)
2
𝐻(𝑥) = −0.0084𝑥 + 0.0837𝑥 + 0.1011 (3) 𝛿𝐮𝑖+1 = 𝐊−1 (𝐠 + 𝛿𝜆𝑖+1 𝐟𝑒𝑥𝑡 )
𝑖+1 𝑖
(5)

3
X. Wang and B. Song Thin-Walled Structures 171 (2022) 108666

Fig. 4. Macroscopic geometric characteristics of bamboo (unit: cm).

Table 1
Material property parameters of Q235B.
Density (kg/m3 ) Yield stress 𝑓y (MPa) Ultimate stress 𝑓u (mm) Elastic modulus 𝐸s (MPa) Poisson’s ratio 𝜐s
7850 235 432 2.06 × 105 0.3

The cumulative increment expression calculated in the 𝑖 + 1th iter- between the slub, not at the bamboo nodes, which indicates that the
ation is as follows: existence of bamboo nodes plays a role in strengthening, and the local
𝛥𝐮𝑖+1 = 𝛥𝐮𝑖 + 𝛿𝐮 + 𝛿𝜆𝑖+1 𝐮𝑇 (6) stability is greatly improved.
The ductility coefficient of the structure is calculated according to
where the incremental solution of the unbalanced force 𝛿𝐮 = 𝐊−1 𝑔;
𝑖+1 𝑖 formula (7).
the displacement produced by the total external force 𝐮𝑇 = 𝐊−1 𝐟 .
𝑖+1 𝑒𝑥𝑡
The pushover method is used to analyze the pushover of bamboo- 𝛿𝜇
𝜇= (7)
inspired structures and regular structures. The overturning failures of 𝛿𝑦
the bamboo-inspired and ordinary structure are shown in Fig. 5.
where 𝜇 is the displacement ductility coefficient, 𝛿𝜇 is the limit dis-
It can be seen from Fig. 5 that during the overturning failure pro-
placement, 𝛿y is the yield displacement.
cess, the von Mises stress distribution of the bamboo-inspired structure
is relatively uniform, and the von Mises stress concentration occurs at The ultimate load 𝑃m , yield load 𝑃y , yield displacement 𝛿y , and
the root of the ordinary structure. The relative stress level at the center ultimate displacement 𝛿𝜇 (displacement corresponding to 0.85 times
of the slub is low, and the material close to the bamboo body plays of peak load in descending section of the curve) of bamboo-inspired
a role, so the role of the slub is equivalent to that of the circumfer- structure and ordinary structure are determined by the general yield
ential stiffener. The plastic hinge of bamboo-inspired structure occurs moment method, as shown in Fig. 6.

4
X. Wang and B. Song Thin-Walled Structures 171 (2022) 108666

Fig. 5. Comparison of overturning failure between ordinary and bamboo-inspired structure.

Fig. 6. p-𝛿 curve determination by universal yield moment method. Fig. 7. Performance target of bamboo-inspired design.

It can be seen from Fig. 6 that under the condition of small de- improve the collapse resistance of the structure under large deforma-
formation, the p-𝛿 curve of the bamboo-inspired structure is close tion. Therefore, the performance objective of bamboo inspired design
to that of the ordinary structure. After the structure reaches yield, concept is proposed, as shown in Fig. 7. The 𝑋-axis refers to structural
the advantages of bamboo-inspired structure in bearing capacity and deformation, which is divided into three states: small deformation,
ductility are gradually highlighted. The ultimate bearing capacity of
medium deformation, and large deformation. 𝑌 -axis is the performance
a bamboo-inspired structure is about 1.2 times that of an ordinary
level, which is divided into four levels: I is the serviceability, i.e., the
structure. According to formula (7), the ductility coefficient of bamboo
structure can meet the normal use function without reinforcement or
structure is 4.0, and that of ordinary structure is 2.3. The ductility
coefficient of the bamboo-inspired structure is about twice that of the repair; II is the repairable, i.e., the structure can be put into use only
ordinary structure with the same mass. To sum up, compared with the after reinforcement or repair; III is close to collapse, i.e., the structure
ordinary structure of the same mass, the bamboo-inspired structure not is close to the critical state of collapse; IV is collapse, i.e., the structure
only increases the ultimate bearing capacity but also greatly improves collapsed and could not be repaired. Under the condition of small
the ductility coefficient. deformation, ordinary structure and bamboo-inspired structure will
Bamboo-inspired structure has good adaptability to large defor- not be damaged. However, when the ordinary structure is subjected
mation due to its good ductility mechanism, which can be used to to extreme load, the structure will produce large deformation and

5
X. Wang and B. Song Thin-Walled Structures 171 (2022) 108666

Fig. 8. Bamboo body calculation model.

Fig. 10. A bionic design method based on bamboo macrostructure.

Fig. 9. Variation of bending stiffness of bamboo.

Table 2
Dimension parameters of the tower body.
Position Height (m) Thickness (mm) Diameter (m)
Part 1 3.5 25.0 19.4
Part 2 6.0 25.0 19.4
Part 3 6.5 25.0 19.4
Part 4 6.5 24.0 19.4 Fig. 11. Schematic diagram of steel desulfurization tower.
Part 5 7.0 23.0 19.4
Part 6 4.0 23.0 19.4
Part 7 7.0 22.0 19.4
Part 8 7.0 22.0 19.4 2.3. Bamboo-inspired design method of cylindrical shell structure
Part 9 3.5 20.0 Variable cross-section
Part 10 15.0 20.0 21.4
Part 11 4.5 18.0 Variable cross-section
Part 12 3.5 16.0 13.3 To clarify the mechanical properties of the macro geometric struc-
ture of bamboo and ignore the influence of its material properties, it
is assumed that bamboo is a homogeneous material, and the material
parameters are consistent with Q235B. According to the change law
of section size in formula (1) and formula (2), the calculation model
collapse. Even if the bamboo inspired structure is subjected to excessive
of the bamboo body is simplified as a conical shell with variable wall
load, it will not collapse under large deformation. thickness, as shown in Fig. 8.

6
X. Wang and B. Song Thin-Walled Structures 171 (2022) 108666

Table 3
Similarity ratio parameter.
Parameter Geometry Elastic modulus Rigidity Gravity acceleration Frequency Displacement Strain Strain
Ratio 1/20 1.0 1/204 1.0 20 20 1.0 1.0

Table 4
PGA adjustment of seismic wave.
Seismic intensity 7 8 9
PGA (gal) 220 400 620

according to the characteristics of the slub. At the same time, the

stiffener should be non-uniform distributed along the height direction.
Here, the layout principle of stiffeners is put forward qualitatively re-
garding the distribution law of bamboo joints. The specific distribution
should be determined according to the actual engineering structure.
Firstly, through the analysis of stiffener spacing parameters, a certain
stiffener spacing is determined as the base. Based on the basic stiffener
spacing, the stiffener spacing at the bottom of the cylindrical shell
structure is appropriately reduced and the stiffener spacing at the upper
part is appropriately increased. Through the reasonable design of wall
thickness and stiffener, the effect of bamboo-inspired design can be
achieved.

3. Shaking table test on failure characteristics of bamboo-inspired

steel tower

3.1. Bamboo-inspired thin-walled cylindrical steel tower

Taking a thin-walled cylindrical shell of a thermal power plant

as the engineering background, the application analysis of bamboo-
Fig. 12. Scale test model.
inspired design is carried out, as shown in Fig. 11. The material type
of the tower body is Q235B. The material properties of Q235B are
described in detail in Section 2.2. The density is 7850 kg/m3 , the
The calculation formula of bending stiffness S (without considering
Poisson’s ratio is 0.3, and the elastic modulus is 2.06 × 1011 Pa. The
the influence of slub) of bamboo section at any height is derived.
radius of the bottom cylinder section is 9.7 m, the total height of the
𝐸𝜋 { 4 }
tower is 74 m, the site is class II, and the seismic fortification intensity
𝑆= 𝐷 (𝑥) − [𝐷(𝑥) − 2 × 𝑡(𝑥)]4 (8)
64 is 6.
𝐸𝜋 [ 3 ]
𝑆= 𝐷 (𝑥)𝑡(𝑥) − 3𝐷2 (𝑥)𝑡2 (𝑥) + 4𝐷(𝑥)𝑡3 (𝑥) − 2𝑡4 (𝑥) (9) Limited by the internal equipment of the desulfurization tower, the
8
section diameter of the desulfurization tower cannot change as much
where E is the elastic modulus of the material; D is the diameter of the
as the bamboo body. Based on the principle of equivalent stiffness, the
bamboo body; t is the wall thickness of the bamboo body, and x is the
bending stiffness is adjusted by changing the wall thickness in sections,
height.
and the wall thickness decreases in sections along the height direction.
By substituting Eqs. (1) and (2) into Eq. (9), the variation law of
The dimension parameters of each section are shown in Table 2. With
bending stiffness of bamboo section along the height direction can be
the stress concentration and large deformation at the opening position,
obtained, as shown in Fig. 9. It can be seen that the bending stiffness of
the Box-stiffeners are arranged around the bottom opening of the tower.
the bamboo-section decreases along the height direction, and the closer
At the variable section of the top tower, T-type stiffeners are used in
to the top, the faster the stiffness decreases. The bending moment of
other parts.
the bamboo body under the action of external load is also gradually
reduced along the height direction, which shows that the bamboo body
changes with equal strength along the height direction. 3.2. Scale model design and survey point layout
Based on the relationship between the macrostructure character-
istics of bamboo and its mechanical properties, the bionic design of To explore the failure characteristics of bamboo-inspired cylindrical
cylindrical shell structure can be carried out. In practical engineering shell structure, a shaking table test of scale model was carried out. The
structures, the diameter of cylindrical shell structures cannot change test was carried out on the ES-15 hydraulic shaking table. Table size
significantly because of the equipment inside. To ensure the internal of the shaking table is 1.5 m×1.5 m. According to the experimental
use space, according to the variation law of bamboo section bending conditions, to maximize the improvement of the similarity ratio [17],
stiffness, the bending stiffness can be adjusted by changing the wall the overall height of the model is 3.7 m. Based on the principle of
thickness in sections, and the local stability can be improved by setting similarity theory, to realize the maximum similarity between the scale
stiffeners in imitation of bamboo joints, as shown in Fig. 10. model and the actual structure, the model is made of stainless steel
It can be seen from Fig. 10 that, referring to the bending stiffness with the same mechanical properties as the existing structure, i.e., the
variation law of bamboo body along the height direction, on the one material dimensionless coefficients of the model and prototype are
hand, the wall thickness of cylindrical shell structure is gradually equal. Therefore, the main similarity ratio parameters are simplified,
reduced along the height direction through the method of subsection as shown in Table 3.
variable wall thickness. On the other hand, to improve the local sta- On the premise of ensuring the accuracy of measurement target,
bility, the section type of the stiffener should be designed reasonably grasp the main influencing factors, ignore or reduce the influence of

7
X. Wang and B. Song Thin-Walled Structures 171 (2022) 108666

Fig. 13. Arrangement of measuring points and sensors.

Fig. 14. El-Centro seismic waveform.

Fig. 16. Natural frequency spectrum curve.

a secondary factor, and section stiffness and bending moment are

considered as the main factors. The scale model is made according to
the similarity ratio, as shown in Fig. 12.
Acceleration sensors and displacement meters are set along the
height direction of the test model, numbered A1∼A6 and U1∼U2, as
shown in Fig. 13. Strain gauges are bonded at the bottom opening to
collect the dynamic response of the structure under the action of ground
motion.

3.3. Characteristics of seismic wave and peak value adjustment

Combined with the purpose of this paper, the 1940 Imperial Valley
earthquake (El-Centro seismic wave) which is suitable for class II site is
Fig. 15. Response spectrum of El-Centro seismic.
selected for loading, and the epicentral distance of the seismic wave is
12 km, which belongs to near-field seismic wave [19]. Figs. 14 and 15
show the waveform and the response spectrum curve with a damping
ratio of 5% of the El-Centro seismic wave. The seismic wave has the
characteristics of great influence on the low-frequency structure and
secondary factors [18]. For the seismic response analysis of cylindrical short predominant period of acceleration response spectrum.
shell structure, the impact of bending moment is much more significant According to the standard for classification of seismic fortification
than that of axial force. Therefore, the axial force is considered as of Building Engineering GB 50223-2008, the desulfurization tower

8
X. Wang and B. Song Thin-Walled Structures 171 (2022) 108666

Fig. 17. Structural failure after a strong earthquake.

Fig. 18. Dynamic response to earthquakes of different intensity.

belongs to the power production building, which belongs to the key From the natural vibration spectrum curve, it can be seen that the
fortification class. The seismic measures of this kind of structure should main frequency corresponding to the maximum amplitude is 18.5 Hz,
be one degree higher than the seismic fortification intensity of the that is, resonance occurs at this frequency. After conversion by the sim-
site [20]. The peak value adjustment of the seismic wave is shown in ilarity ratio, the natural frequency of the actual structure is 0.925 Hz,
Table 4. The acceleration peak values of seismic waves are 2.2, 4.0, and and the natural period is about 1.08 s, indicating that the bamboo-
6.2 m/s2 , respectively, corresponding to the actual seismic intensity of inspired structure is a long-period structure.
7, 8, and 9 degrees. The damage state of bamboo-inspired cylindrical shell steel tower
after a rare earthquake with an intensity of 9 is shown in Fig. 17. It
4. Results and discussion
can be seen from Fig. 17 that after a strong earthquake, local buckling
Before the seismic response analysis, the white noise excitation and mild bending of the tower wall near the opening of the tower
method is used to determine the natural vibration characteristics of occurred, but no collapse occurred. It meets the requirements of the
the bamboo-inspired cylindrical shell structure. The Fourier transform seismic performance target of bamboo-inspired design, i.e., it does not
method is used to process the acceleration time history of the tower collapse under the condition of large deformation.
top, and the natural vibration spectrum curve of the actual structure is The dynamic response of the structure along the height direction
obtained through the similarity ratio conversion, as shown in Fig. 16. is extracted by inputting seismic waves with different peak intensities

9
X. Wang and B. Song Thin-Walled Structures 171 (2022) 108666

in turn. According to the similarity ratio conversion, the dynamic Acknowledgments

response of the actual structure is shown in Fig. 18. It can be seen from
Fig. 18(a) and (b) that the acceleration and displacement responses of This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
the structure under different seismic intensity follow the same trend dation of China (Grant No. 52078038) and Basic scientific research
along with the height of the structure, gradually increasing along the projects of Central Universities (FRF-MP-20-20).
height direction, and mutation occurs at the bottom opening position
and the upper dust removal expansion position. According to the stress References
of the structure in Fig. 18(c), it is 71.6 MPa under the seismic action of
intensity 7 and 104 MPa under the seismic action of intensity 8, both [1] H. Shima, M. Sato, A. Inoue, Self-adaptive formation of uneven node spacings
in wild bamboo, Phys. Rev. E 93 (2016) 022406, [Link]
of which do not exceed the allowable stress value of 113 MPa of the
PhysRevE.93.022406.
structural material, indicating that the bamboo-inspired desulfurization [2] M. Zou, J. Song, S. Xu, S.F. Liu, Z.Y. Chang, Bionic design of the bumper beam
is in an elastic state. Under the earthquake action of intensity 9, the inspired by the bending and energy absorption characteristics of bamboo, Appl.
maximum stress is 187 MPa, which exceeds the allowable stress of the Bionics. Biomech. 2018 (2018) 1–12, [Link]
material. [3] F.L. Palombini, J.E. de Araujo Mariath, B.F. de Oliveira, Bionic design of thin-
walled structure based on the geometry of the vascular bundles of bamboo,
Thin-Walled Struct. 155 (2020) 106936, [Link]
5. Conclusions 106936.
[4] Y.J. He, X.H. Liu, X.H. Zhou, Research on arrangement of hoop-layers of
Based on the analysis of the relationship between macrostruc- imitating bamboo drum type tridimensional parking structure, J. Hunan. Univ.
(Natl. Sci.) 40 (2013) 1–7.
ture characteristics and mechanical properties of bamboo, a bamboo-
[5] X.J. Cao, Y.F. Wang, Q. Wang, Integrated analysis and design of loading capacity
inspired design method of cylindrical shell structure is proposed. The and thermal protections of multilayer thin-walled structures based on bionics,
variation rules of bamboo diameter, wall thickness, and slub spacing Eng. Mech. 32 (2015) 26–31, [Link]
along the height direction were obtained. The bending stiffness of the 12.1230.
bamboo body along the height direction is calculated. The equivalent [6] J.H. Sun, Q.H. Zhao, Engineering applications of steel plate shear walls, Build.
Struct. 45 (2015) 63–70.
bending stiffness change of bamboo-inspired structure is realized by
[7] W.G. Fu, W.M. Cheng, L.F. Yu, D.Z. Pu, Bionics design of transverse stiffener in
changing the wall thickness of the tower and setting the stiffeners. the upright rail box girder based on bamboo structure, J. Southwest Jiaotong.
In the case of small deformation, the mechanical performance of the Univ. 48 (2013) 211–216.
bamboo-inspired structure is close to that of an ordinary design. After [8] D.H. Xing, W.Y. Chen, D.J. Xing, T. Yang, Lightweight design for thin-walled
cylindrical shell based on action mechanism of bamboo node, J. Mech. Des. 135
the design reaches the yield stage, the advantages of bamboo-inspired
(2013) 1–6, [Link]
structure in bearing capacity and ductility are gradually highlighted. [9] Y.B. Deng, Y.R. Ren, X.W. Fu, H.Y. Jiang, Bionic-bamboo design for enhancing
The ultimate bearing capacity and ductility coefficient of the bamboo- the crashworthiness of composite tube with groove trigger subjected to oblique
inspired structure are 1.2 and 2 times that of ordinary structure, load, Int. J. Mech. Sci. 206 (2021) 106635, [Link]
respectively. Compared with the ordinary structure of the same mass, 2021.106635.
[10] Y.Q. Zheng, F.G. Dong, H.Q. Guo, B.X. Lu, Z.W. He, Bionic design of the tower
bamboo-inspired structure has good adaptability to large deformation
for wind turbine, Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. C: J. Mech. Eng. Sci. 203-210 (2021)
due to its good ductility mechanism, which can be used to improve the 09544062211004650, [Link]
collapse resistance of the structure under large deformation. [11] T.C. Zhang, A.L. Wang, Q.S. Wang, F.R. Guan, Bending characteristics analysis
The application analysis of bamboo imitation design was carried and lightweight design of a bionic beam inspired by bamboo structures, Thin-
Walled Struct. 142 (2019) 476–498, [Link]
out. Taking the thin-walled cylindrical shell desulfurization tower as
043.
an example, the section bending stiffness of the bamboo-inspired tower [12] J. Fu, Q. Liu, K. Liufu, Y.C. Deng, J.G. Fang, Q. Li, Design of bionic-bamboo thin-
body is consistent with that of the bamboo body through subsection walled structures for energy absorption, Thin-Walled Struct. 135 (2019) 400–413,
variable wall thickness design method. A shaking table test of the [Link]
bamboo-inspired cylindrical shell was carried out. Under the action of [13] M. Zou, S. Xu, C.G. Wei, H.X. Wang, Z.Z. Liu, A bionic method for the crashwor-
thiness design of thin-walled structures inspired by bamboo, Thin-Walled Struct.
the high-intensity rare earthquake, the tower has local buckling. Still,
101 (2016) 222–230, [Link]
it has not collapsed, which can meet the performance requirements [14] R.X. Hao, M. Wang, S. Jia, G. Li, Static pushover analysis of frame structure based
of no collapse under large deformation proposed in Section 2.2. The on force analogy method, J. Southwest Jiaotong. Univ. 55 (2020) 1028–1035.
rationality of bamboo-inspired structure is verified. [15] W.Q. Xia, L. Lu, H.H. Zhang, Y.C. Xu, Study on the seismic performance of
the external prestressed self-centering frame with pushover analysis, Eng. Mech.
37 (2020) 172–179+186, [Link]
CRediT authorship contribution statement S032.
[16] C. Kadapa, A simple extrapolated predictor for overcoming the starting and
Xihui Wang: Writing – original draft, Software, Methodology, In- tracking issues in the arc-length method for nonlinear structural mechanics, Eng.
vestigation, Data curation, Conceptualization. Bo Song: Writing – re- Struct. 234 (2021) 111755, [Link]
[17] F.L. Huang, T.F. Long, F.F. Yang, R. Dong, Gravity distortion effect on shake
view & editing, Supervision, Resources, Project administration, Funding
table tests of concrete filled steel tubular single arch ribs, Eng. Mech. 36 (2019)
acquisition, Conceptualization. 52–61, [Link]
[18] C.X. Wei, D.C. Zhou, J. Zhang, S.S. Xue, Similarity method and model design
Declaration of competing interest method for dynamic model tests of bridge tower under wave action, Shock. Vib.
40 (2021) 119–125 +178, [Link]
[19] B. Song, B.S. Yin, J. Lao, H.B. Zhu, Study on seismic performance of steel
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan- desulfurizing tower structure with large opening, J. Build. Struct. 37 (2016)
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to 177–185, [Link]
influence the work reported in this paper. [20] GB 50223—2008 Standard for Classification of Seismic Protection of Building
Constructions, China Architecture & Building Press, Beijing, 2008.

10