Currently, when trees are harvested, the places where tree limbs fork are cut out and used for mulch or other low tech uses. Researchers at MIT are discovering that these forks in trees are actually extremely strong and have load carrying properties that cannot be duplicated even by processes like 3D printing.
Dr. Caitlin Mueller, Associate Professor of Architecture and Civil and Environmental Engineering, part of the Building Technology Program at MIT, sees great opportunities for what she calls “upcycling” these tree forks. Thanks to the internal structure of the tree forks, they have “unbelievable” load carrying capacity, especially at nodes in structures where preventing failure is critical.
An article describes in detail the five step “design-to-fabrication workflow” process. One of the steps involves matching a tree fork to a particular design project using a program developed in the mid 1950’s called the Hungarian Algorithm. It is used often in marriage matching-making programs, especially when you have two groups of things and you are trying to find specific matches between them. That was interesting in itself.
Creating structural elements from wood has a considerably smaller carbon footprint that designing with steel or aluminum. Wood was at one time the primary building material. While it may not return to be the primary building material in the future, using tree forks may only be the beginning of an environmentally attractive comeback. – Dr. Tom
