Cellular Automata Based Design of Cost Optimal Steel Building Frames

This work proposes graceful application of cellular automata (CA) to address a well known design problem in civil engineering. A large number of design alternatives exists regarding the choice of bracing pattern and the placing of braces in a tall steel building frame. The target is to find a cost optimal steel structure through proper placing of braces. In the conventional design procedure, based on the principles of structural engineering, an extremely large number of design alternatives exists, making it nearly impossible to arrive at an appropriate design of the bracing system that may lead to optimum design of the entire structure. The proposed design scheme, developed around the GF(2 ^{3} ) CA, offers better alternatives and an easier way to arrive at the near-optimum solution in zero time. The GF(2 ^{3} ) CA, defined in Galois extension field, suits the modeling of different braces that are conventionally considered for designing multi-storied steel building frames. A CA state on the other hand, corresponds to bracing pattern of a storey and can be tuned to achieve the desired solution. The exhaustive experimental results point to the fact that the proposed CA based approach is most effective, while considering the design of tall building frames, and can reuse a design for scalability.