BiomiMETRIC: développement d’un outil pour la conception biomimétique et application à l’étude de scénarios de mobilité urbaine

Abstract

Biomimicry, and more specifically biomimetic design framed by the ISO 18458 standard, have strong potential for innovation in engineering, design or architecture. However, these approaches, drawing their inspiration from the observation and understanding of living things, lack quantification. This weakness in terms of evaluating the real biomimetic or environmental performance of a solution limits the dissemination and more systematic use of the biomimetic approach in disciplines that usually mobilize many quantitative approaches such as engineering. The main objective of this thesis is to develop a quantitative tool to aid in biomimetic design, and to apply it to the evaluation of scenarios in urban mobility, in order to improve their sustainability. To achieve this objective, this thesis brings three main contributions to the construction of knowledge. The first contribution consists of the association of impact assessment methods derived from life cycle analysis (LCA) with the ten principles of biomimicry or principles of life. This less subjective approach than the current assessment will ensure a quantitative measure of the biomimetic performance of a solution or product. The second contribution comes in the form of the development of BiomiMETRIC, a tool for quantifying biomimetic performance, which improves the biomimetic design methodology by making the design process more operational. Indeed, BiomiMETRIC quantifies the ten principles of biomimicry thanks to the methods used in LCA, in addition to proposing a list of questions evaluated, for each principle of biomimicry. The result is a numerical comparison allowing the designer to select the best biomimetic options. The third contribution concerns the use of the innovative approach proposed by BiomiMETRIC, in order to compare five scenarios of urban mobility of people through a case study associated with the context of users' trips during rush hour on the island. from Montreal. The "Resilience Aléas" scenario resulting from a systemic and prospective approach displays the best compromise in terms of implementation and biomimetic performance. "Résilience Aléas", which offers a cocktail of collective mobility, active mobility and transport electrification, has a higher biomimetic performance and therefore systematically lower environmental impacts than the initial Status Quo scenario. BiomiMETRIC revealed a reduction in the consumption of materials (-75.7%), in energy demand (-72.1%), in the consumption of fossil resources (-74.5%), in water consumption (-55.0%), in GHG emissions (-72.5%), in the accumulation of toxic substances (-72.9%), as well as land use (-68.2%). Intended for all those with an interest in biomimetic design, such as designers, architects or engineers, in addition to the ISO 18458 standard, BiomiMETRIC provides an answer to the question: "How to quantitatively assess the performance of various alternatives in order to select the one with the best environmental and biomimetic potential?". The use of BiomiMETRIC will make it possible to characterize the options evaluated with regard to the principles of biomimicry, to quantify the biomimetic performance of an innovation, and finally to facilitate the decision-making process by the stakeholders.

Date	11 Nov 2021
Original language	French
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Mathias Glaus (Supervisor) & Emmanuel Raufflet (Co-supervisor)