The Art of Engineering

Today I finished the 2-week course in Pro/Engineer and learned how to import a model into Solidworks, another 3-dimensional CAD program so I can run an analysis in a Finite Element Analysis program called Cosmos. (I have to say, for marketers of graphical computer programs, these guys don't show much on their websites!)

It's simple - I started with a 3-dimensional sketch of a simplified banana leaf (only half since it is symmetrical), then chose rubber as a flexible material and ran Cosmos to see where the highest stress is and how much. In this example, the "leaf" is loaded with a pressure across the top surface that gets bigger toward the tip. The green arrows show where this half-leaf is pinned (ie connects to the other half). The colour variation shows that the highest stress (red) is just past the last rib and the peak stress is higher than the yield stress ("Streckgrenze"), so I overloaded this one.
That is just a half-day work. The next steps are to add more ribs and determine a realistic load like a real banana plant (which grows up to 6 metres tall and carries over 30 kg of bananas!). The results of a more detailed analysis will compare different materials (like wood or plastic) and different cross-sections (more ribs, or different connections). We will see whether this is better than your standard truss construction, how long we can extend it and how far it will bend.

And whether it can support a Saarlandisch cabbage...