Structural Components - a parametric associative design toolbox for conceptual structural design

Abstract

Current analysis tools available to the designing structural engineer do not support the early design stage on a conceptual level, since these tools are mainly aimed at precision rather than flexibility, the generation of alternatives and providing oversight over a design concept. The authors propose a parametric associative design toolbox for early stage conceptual structural design; a prototype implementation consisting of several .NET addins for GenerativeComponents (Aish [1]). The designer can generate different structural concepts for a high-rise building quickly and easily. The tool improves the interaction between the architect and engineer by increasing the flexibility and speed of the design process. The structural engineer can actively participate and is able to work in parallel with the architect during the early design phases. The concept is based on a modular software architecture and dashboard for visualisation. In such a way that a structural model can be built from abstract objects, called StructuralComponents, which represent pre-programmed blocks of differential equations. The dashboard principle allows the engineer to have all the relevant information visible in a single view. The set-up of the model can be adapted during the design. The analysis method is a combination of the finite element method and differential equations (Steenbergen [7]). The basis is a finite element model with a limited amount of elements, where the elements represent the various structural elements. This results in a system with a limited amount of elements and a limited amount of degrees of freedom, which benefits the computation time. Different from conventional finite element methods, differential equations are used to determine the total system behaviour instead of interpolating the results using shape functions. This offers exact analytical results, providing quantitative and qualitative results. The tool is developed for tall buildings, but the concept is applicable to other structural systems. Future developments include enhancement of the user interface, 3D analysis, and more types of components.