Abstract
A simple method is presented to carry out a retrospective analysis to examine the development of load-bearing structures. The idea is to eliminate the differences coming from technological changes (such as joints, profiles, loads) by using relative numbers to express the relation of the structures to the possible theoretical solutions under the same circumstances. The method is demonstrated by investigating the impact of historical changes focusing on metal Pratt trusses spanning about 100 ft, located in Indiana, U.S., erected between 1870 and 1937. Data of 87 structures was collected and compared to the results of a multi-objective optimisation computed using a genetic algorithm. Using the relative numbers acquired by evaluating the objective functions for the historical structures, a large time-scale optimisation process through history can be visualised. Plotting them on the Pareto-front diagram determined by the genetic algorithm and examining the historical background of the state revealed that the economic and industrial changes, in fact, had a considerable impact on the design trends, which manifests in changes of the weights of the objective functions.
Highlights
There is a huge interest for the topology optimisation of load-bearing structures from mathematical, computational and engineering aspects (Lógó, 2005; Ezzat, 2016; Rozvany, 2014)
Plotting them on the Pareto-front diagram determined by the genetic algorithm and examining the historical background of the state revealed that the economic and industrial changes, had a considerable impact on the design trends, which manifests in changes of the weights of the objective functions
One of the widely used optimisation techniques is the Genetic Algorithm (GA). It is an evolutionary algorithm and considered to be analogous to natural selection, the optimisation process of our nature. While this connection is straightforward for biological changes, an interesting question arises considering the development of engineering structures: are load-bearing structures developed in a similar evolutionary manner through history due to the advancement of technology? What makes the problem complex is that technological advances might have produced better-optimised structures, there were several factors having an impact on the weights of the objective functions
Summary
There is a huge interest for the topology optimisation of load-bearing structures from mathematical, computational and engineering aspects (Lógó, 2005; Ezzat, 2016; Rozvany, 2014). Data of 87 structures was collected and compared to the results of a multi-objective optimisation computed using a genetic algorithm. Plotting them on the Pareto-front diagram determined by the genetic algorithm and examining the historical background of the state revealed that the economic and industrial changes, had a considerable impact on the design trends, which manifests in changes of the weights of the objective functions.
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