Bio-based material integration into computational form-finding tools by introducing tensile properties in the case of bacterial cellulose-based composites

Recent studies in digital design and fabrication processes focus on the potentials of using biological systems in nature as mathematical models or more recently as bio-based materials and composites in various applications. The reciprocal integration between mechanical and digital media for designing and manufacturing bio-based products is still open to development. The current digital form-finding scripts involve an extensive material list, although bio-based materials have not been fully integrated yet. This paper explores a customized form-finding process by suggesting a framework through mechanically informed material-based computation. Bacterial cellulose, an unconventional yet potential material for design, was explored across its biological growth, tensile properties, and the integration of datasets into digital form finding. The initial results of the comparison between digital form finding with conventional materials versus mechanically informed digital form finding revealed a huge difference in terms of both the resulting optimum geometry and the maximum axial forces that the geometry could actually handle. Although this integration is relatively novel in the literature, the proposed methodology has proven effective for enhancing the structural optimization process within digital design and fabrication and for bringing us closer to real-life applications. This approach allows conventional and limited material lists in various digital form finding and structural optimization scripts to cover novel materials once the quantitative mechanical properties are obtained. This method has the potential to develop into a commercial algorithm for a large number of bio-based and customized prototypes within the context of digital form finding of complex geometries.