Product, Nature, and Life form the underlying foundations on which civil engineering is based. These three aspects need to be considered not only for creating innovative designs, but also for providing optimal functionality, ensuring safety, and safeguarding sustainability for ecological well-being. This is true for all types of civil engineering projects, including city developments, large transportation projects, as well as dams and irrigation works.
How can we include product, nature and life in the design processes for civil engineering projects? This will need to be done through realistic simulations that take into account precise geometry and material properties, realistic representations of physical and natural processes, and rational predictions of experiences by people. Such simulations, in addition to the obvious need for ascertaining structural safety, also need to include the construction processes and sequences, along with reliable valuations of construction and maintenance costs.
Planning and Simulation
In architecture, virtual or graphical simulation models can help in arriving at conceptual designs, taking into account wide ranges of criteria, such as layout, positioning, landscaping, and lighting. These configurations can then be used in computational analyses to predict structural deformations and stresses resulting from applied loading and support conditions.
In construction, the chosen design is then used for material estimation and ordering, planning the construction sequence, and managing the construction process using appropriate simulation tools. As one can see, simulation helps in all three phases of any civil engineering project—conceptual and architectural design, engineering design, and construction.
The Structure Design for Fabrication process on the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform from Dassault Systèmes has been specifically developed to provide engineers and architects with a unified capability to virtually represent conceptual designs, perform engineering analyses, analyze construction sequences and manage construction projects all together, while keeping track of individual components. In addition to the Structure Design for Fabrication process on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, Dassault Systèmes also provides solutions using the Abaqus® simulation software for complex simulations and analyses, including for pre-stressed and reinforced concrete, for simulating altered behaviors of damaged structures, for geomechanics analyses for tunnels and foundations, and for seismic response analyses of complex structures.
Read the white paper, “Simulation in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction,” to learn how the Structural Design for Fabrication process and Abaqus simulation software tools have been used for analyzing bridges and buildings.
Deepak Datye is a Sr. Consultant, Technical Solutions, at SIMULIA. He is based at the SIMULIA headquarters in Johnston, RI. Over the past several years he has been focusing on Abaqus applications for geomechanics, civil engineering, and oil and gas. Deepak has been with SIMULIA since 2001, and holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from Stanford University.