Optimization‐based three‐dimensional strut‐and‐tie model generation for reinforced concrete

Abstract

Strut-and-tie modelling (STM) is an effective and widely used method to design disturbed regions (D-regions) of reinforced concrete structures. Among the various steps of STM, finding a suitable truss-analogy model is the most challenging part. Even for experienced engineers it is difficult to find representative models for complex D-regions, and this task is even harder for three-dimensional (3D) Dregions. To date, only a few 3D STM models have been proposed by researchers for several complex D-regions, which leaves practitioners with little guidance.In order to solve this problem, a method is proposed to automatically generate 3D optimization-based STM (3D-OPT-STM) models. The generation method comprises a compliance-based topology optimization process that generates optimized structural forms by maximizing stiffness, a topology extraction method, and a shape optimization method. In this study, three 3D-OPT-STM models are generated for typical 3D D-regions, and their performances are compared to manually created STM models. The generated 3D-OPT-STM models result in more economical designs. Moreover, geometrical and loading parameter studies demonstrate the applicability and robustness of the proposed method.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Topology optimization in concrete construction: a systematic review on numerical and experimental investigations

“…The work of Xia et al (2020a) highlight better results for linear elastic, isotropic models than orthotropic models. Xia et al (2020b) continued the research, incorporating 3D calculations, by maximizing stiffness via a linear-elastic TO method, an extraction of the found topology and subsequent shape optimization. The nonlinear FEA that follow results show that TO extracted outcomes are more economical in comparison to manually generated ST models.…”

Truss Parametrization of Topology Optimization Results with Curve Skeletons and Meta Balls

“…On such representation common algorithms in digital image processing such as morphological or convolutional filters can be applied (Burger and Burge, 2009), which offers the advantages of fast computaionial processing. While such representation is common in image processing, engineering applications requieres a shape parametric to be able to fulifill manufacturing constraints (Adam and Zimmer, 2015) or even apply shape optimization (Bandara et al, 2016;Xia et al, 2020). Topology optimization can lead to smooth results (Christiansen et al, 2015) or even directly to freeform surfaces (Gao et al, 2020), which often does not lead to a suitable parameterization desirable for matching the shape to manufacturing.…”

Impact Response of Preplaced Aggregate Fibrous Concrete Hammerhead Pier Beam Designed with Topology Optimization

“…For topology optimization, the method of SIMP is utilized to overcome the given constraints. In general, the topology optimized structures are examined by numerical simulations only [23][24][25][26].…”