Steel Grid Shells Stress-Based Sizing Optimisation

The second half of the 20th century brought a revolution, when a computer-aided design (CAD) emerged. The new technologies were not only aiding with the existing designs, they begun to generate them too making the first examples of what is known today as a free-form design. Complicated 3D geometries could now be easily generated, viewed on the screen and dimensioned. The design process of such structures though implicates numerous difficulties and requires managing large data streams, which even aided by the spreadsheets can be overwhelming to manage and interpret for the engineer. The main objective of this Master’s thesis project is to create a stress-based sizing optimisation tool for steel grid shells, investigate its behaviour and validate its output. The tool developed combines the parametric modelling paradigm with the Finite Element Analysis software and allows to tackle a real-world problems of the modern engineering practice - structural complexity of large grid shells and automation of their iterative design process.Building Engineering/Structural DesignStructural and Building EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience