Emergent computational models in structural analysis and design

摘要

The present paper reviews some recent developments in the applications of soft-computing tools in problems of structural analysis and design. These problems have grown significantly in scope, a development motivated in part by the more easilyaccessible computational resources. At the same time there is an emerging awareness that existing methods of structural analysis and design are ill-suited to the architecture of new computational machines, and that radically different techniques, morenaturally amenable to these machines, must be developed. The paper, to a large extent, deals with the role of soft-computing tools such as genetic algorithms, neural networks, and immune networks, in enhancing the efficiency of solution strategies forincreasingly complex structural design problems; to a lesser extent it looks at the role of these methods in the development of a new generation of tools for structural analysis and design.