Definitions of robust structural geometries : metrics and form finding
Author(s)
Cerri, Steven, M. Eng Massachusetts Institute of Technology![Thumbnail](/bitstream/handle/1721.1/104188/958136656-MIT.pdf.jpg?sequence=3&isAllowed=y)
DownloadFull printable version (3.269Mb)
Other Contributors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Advisor
Corentin Fivet and John Ochsendorf.
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Robustness varies highly between applications and consequently it is difficult to precisely quantify. However, robustness is a property of a structural system and thus can be described as a function of its form; in other words, as a function of topology, geometry and member properties. This thesis investigates the relationship between both a structure's geometry and topology, and robustness. Two quantitative metrics are proposed to quantify a structure's robustness as a function of geometry. The first metric is a measure of a member's importance relative to others in the redundancy of a structural system. The second metric characterizes the robustness efficiency of the entire structure. These metrics are developed using a novel analysis method coupled with an interactive MATLAB script which infers properties of a redundant structure through the analysis of its stable substructures. Together, these metrics give designers a powerful tool to evaluate the robustness of their preliminary structural design based soled on geometry and static equilibrium. Moreover, using these metrics, geometry optimization techniques are then implemented to discover robust structural geometries for given topologies and the general parameters that describe them.
Description
Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2016. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 44).
Date issued
2016Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringPublisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Keywords
Civil and Environmental Engineering.