Elastic Element Based Cellular Automata Models in Structural Design

摘要

Cellular Automata (CA) is a model of decentralized computation that is ideally tailored for reducing overhead of coordinating information caused by implementing serial analysis algorithms on parallel machines. The rules for evolving CA are generally not known a priori, and are determined from either known exact analytical solution or minimum strain energy criterion, respectively. However, it has been discovered that CA rules derived using aforementioned methods possess inadequate generalization capabilities in order for CA to be used as efficient reanalysis techniques in structural synthesis. The present paper examines the applicability of the CA model based on physical elastic elements such as linkages of springs and point masses in problems of elasticity. The rules for CA evolution are derived based on simple equilibrium principles. The focus of the paper is in the use of elastic element based CA models to analyze elastic structures with both homogeneous and heterogeneous stiffness characteristics and sizing of the structures.