Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Digital structure design: A grid generation and optimisation framework

Ye, Jun

Authors

Jun Ye



Abstract

Gridshells have been widely used in various public buildings, and many of them are defined over complex free-form surfaces with complex boundaries. This emphasizes the importance of general grid generation and optimization methods in the initial design stage to achieve visually sound and easy-to-manufacture structure. In this paper a framework is presented to generate uniform, smooth triangular grids for structural design over free-form surfaces, especially those with complex boundaries. The framework employs a force-based smoothing technique and a connectivity-regularization algorithm to optimize grid quality. First, an appropriate distribution of internal points is randomly generated on the surface. A bubble-like model is then employed to increase the uniformity of the initial point distribution. The points are then connected using Delaunay triangularization to produce an initial grid with rods of balanced length. Thirdly, the grid connectivity is optimized using a range of edge-operations including edge- flip, collapse and split. The optimization process features a grid relaxation objective which includes the valence of the vertices, leading to improved regularity. As a final step, the grid is relaxed to improve fluency using a net-like method. As part of its contribution, this paper therefore proposes a metrics for regularity and fluency, which can be used to quantitatively evaluate the suitability of given grid for architectural and structural expression. Two case-study examples are presented to demonstrate the effective execution of the grid generation and optimization framework. It is shown that by using the proposed framework, the fluency index of the grid can be improved by up to 62%.

Citation

Ye, J. (2019, July). Digital structure design: A grid generation and optimisation framework. Presented at 9th International Conference on Steel and Aluminium Structures, The University of Bradford, Bradford, England

Presentation Conference Type Speech
Conference Name 9th International Conference on Steel and Aluminium Structures
Conference Location The University of Bradford, Bradford, England
Start Date Jul 3, 2019
End Date Jul 5, 2019
Acceptance Date Mar 22, 2019
Deposit Date Mar 21, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal 9th International Conference on Steel and Aluminium Structures (ICSAS19)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Keywords gridshell, free-form surface, grid generation, dynamic grid relaxation, grid quality
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/850306
Related Public URLs https://www.bradford.ac.uk/sustainable-environments/sas-conference/
Additional Information Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : 9th International Conference on Steel and Aluminium Structures (ICSAS19) Bradford, UK, 3-5, July, 2019

Downloadable Citations