Conceptual design in structural engineering: An evolutionary computation approach

Date

2003-07

Authors

Kicinger, Rafal P.
Arciszewski, Tomasz
De Jong, Kenneth A.

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Abstract

This paper describes a new design paradigm, evolutionary structural design, that involves the entire design process, including conceptual and detailed design stages. In this paper, first a brief overview of the fundamentals of evolutionary computation is provided. Next, the concept of evolutionary structural design and its principia are discussed. Inventor 2001 is described in the following section. It is an experimental research and design system based on evolutionary computation. The system has been developed by the authors at George Mason University for applications in the design of tall buildings. Inventor 2001 allows for the conducting of evolutionary structural design, including the generation of structural concepts and the detailed design, analysis of internal forces, dimensioning, and optimization. Selected specific research results are also provided, including a discussion of the discovered emergent structural shaping patterns that are surprisingly consistent with the state of the art in structural shaping of steel skeleton structures of tall buildings. Finally, the initial research conclusions are provided.

Description

Keywords

Citation

Kicinger, R., Arciszewski, T., and De Jong, K. A. (2003). "Conceptual design in structural engineering: an evolutionary computation approach." Proceedings of the 2nd International Specialty Conference on the Conceptual Approach to Structural Design, Milan, Italy, July 1-2, 2003, CI-Premier PTE Ltd., Singapore, 529-536.