A software architecture for the virtual construction of structures
In addition to being a tedious procedure, the complexity of structural construction makes the task of manually generating simulation models quite complicated. The paucity of simulation expertise in the construction industry exacerbates the problem. This research addresses the issue through the development of a generic system architecture that would facilitate the creation of automated model generators for structural construction. The architecture is based on the object-oriented programming paradigm, which supports the use of modularity and hierarchy in the software development process. The generic system architecture developed in this research was used to create an automated model generator for automatically generating and executing a simulation model for the construction of an earth-filled embankment. The simulation results obtained were compared with those obtained through the execution of a manually generated simulation model. A trace obtained from the execution of the automatically generated simulation model was also studied. Both the comparison and the trace tests conducted demonstrated the satisfactory functioning of the automated model generator.
automated model generation structural construction simulation object-oriented simulation object-oriented architecture structural construction analysis