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First published online April 26, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 1677-1686 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01487

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The constructal law of organization in nature: tree-shaped flows and body size

Adrian Bejan

Duke University, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Durham, NC 27708-0300, USA

View larger version (16K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. (B-D) The constructal sequence for the minimal-time route between one point and the infinity of points A1, A2 and A3 of a finite-size area (A) (Bejan, 2000).

View larger version (16K): [in a new window]   Fig. 6. Minimization of the total food or fuel requirement associated with one component in a complex flow system.

View larger version (19K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. The construction of the tree of convective heat currents: (A) the constrained optimization of the geometry of a T-shaped construct; (B) the stretched tree of optimized constructs; (C) the superposition of two identical trees oriented in counterflow, and (D) the convective heat flow along a pair of tubes in counterflow (Bejan, 2000). For a detailed explanation, see text.

View larger version (14K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. The allometric law for animal hair strand diameter and body length scale.

View larger version (22K): [in a new window]   Fig. 5. The flying speeds of insects, birds and aeroplanes, and their theoretical speed (Bejan, 2000).

View larger version (28K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. The distributed destruction of food or fuel exergy during flight.

View larger version (23K): [in a new window]   Fig. 7. Performance vs Freedom to change configuration, at fixed global size L.

View larger version (22K): [in a new window]   Fig. 8. Performance vs Freedom to change configuration, at fixed internal flow size V.