A formal approach to automating conceptual structural design, Part I: Methology

Abstract

In the conceptual phase of structural design a designer develops and investigates many potential alternatives for safe and economic transfer of loads that are to be carried by the structure. A methodology for automating conceptual structural design is presented in this paper. Some of the salient aspects of the methodology are: (1) an explicit representation of the structural form, function, and behavior; (2) modeling the structural engineering domain as well as the strategy employed by expert designers; (3) usingcost/value ratio as an intrinsic measure of the merit of a design alternative; and (4) reduced reliance on heuristics with more emphasis on first principles and fundamental knowledge. The categories of knowledge that need to be represented in a computer system to support the reasoning for conceptual structural design are identified. The use of such knowledge is illustrated through examples based on several different types of structures. A constraint classification system (to organize the constraints that arise from structural and exogenous considerations) is also proposed.