Structure and Fabrication-driven Conceptual Design of Space-frame Structures

The challenge in designing efficient space-frame structures lies in optimising the configuration of their members to reduce material volume, as well as in minimising geometrical variability in their members to reduce construction complexity of joints. Advanced computational tools have been developed to address these challenges; however, they address them either individually or sequentially. This paper proposes a novel method for a multi-objective optimisation of space-frame structures to minimise material volume and geometrical variability in the joints. A computational framework is developed that performs a structural analysis of the starting geometry, while at the same time assesses the geometrical variability between its members and clusters the joints into the number of fabrication batches required for its construction. The optimisation process is then carried out and the impact that the relative weighting of the two objectives has on the generated configurations is explored. The efficiency of the proposed methodology is validated through its application on a series of realistic examples and the design space of optimised structures is explored.