Structural design synthesis using machine learning

Thesis: Ph. D. in Building Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, September, 2020

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Danhaive, Renaud Aleis Pierre Emile.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138590
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author Danhaive, Renaud Aleis Pierre Emile.
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture.
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture.
Danhaive, Renaud Aleis Pierre Emile.
author_sort Danhaive, Renaud Aleis Pierre Emile.
collection MIT
description Thesis: Ph. D. in Building Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, September, 2020
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spelling mit-1721.1/1385902021-12-18T03:20:41Z Structural design synthesis using machine learning Danhaive, Renaud Aleis Pierre Emile. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture Architecture. Thesis: Ph. D. in Building Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, September, 2020 Cataloged from the official pdf of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-219). This dissertation investigates how data-driven methods may support creative, performance-informed design processes for early-stage building and structural design. Given the imperative to curb greenhouse gas emissions, designers have an increased responsibility to consider the environmental impact of their decisions early on in the design process when they have outsize effects on a building's environmental performance. Although existing methods of optimization and design space exploration can guide designers toward better design options based on simulation data, there remain significant hurdles to the effective adoption of these tools despite their potential benefits. First, many engineering simulations remain cumbersome to connect with and slow to run, disrupting the pace of a fluid design process. Second, the design spaces used to generate and evaluate design variations are so vast that they are virtually impossible for humans to effectively explore. Finally, due to the intrinsically human nature of architecture and design, there is strong resistance to any process which purports to fully automate it. This dissertation addresses these challenges by proposing three strategies that capitalize on recent advances in deep learning to connect the power of performance-driven computing with the fluidity and creativity of human design and help human designers explore complex structural design spaces more intuitively. The first approach uses convolutional neural networks to expand surrogate modeling, which substitutes fast data-driven approximations for slow engineering simulations, from the prediction of single metrics to entire simulation fields. This reveals how performance is distributed spatially, providing more holistic feedback than previously possible. Two case studies show how this can uniquely link shape exploration and design materialization in fast and responsive ways. The second strategy introduces a sequential sampling algorithm that can help increase the effectiveness of many data-driven design approaches by helping build high-quality design datasets. Finally, the third approach takes advantage of the proposed sampling scheme to train deep generative models with low-dimensional latent spaces that can be intuitively explored by human designers to synthesize diverse structures with prescribed performance levels. Cases studies spanning different typologies and scales illustrate these approaches and demonstrate how harnessing advances in machine learning can amplify human creativity in structural design. by Renaud Danhaive. Ph. D. in Building Technology Ph. D. in Building Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture 2021-12-17T18:24:23Z 2021-12-17T18:24:23Z 2020 2020 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138590 1288574413 eng MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 219 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Architecture.
Danhaive, Renaud Aleis Pierre Emile.
Structural design synthesis using machine learning
title Structural design synthesis using machine learning
title_full Structural design synthesis using machine learning
title_fullStr Structural design synthesis using machine learning
title_full_unstemmed Structural design synthesis using machine learning
title_short Structural design synthesis using machine learning
title_sort structural design synthesis using machine learning
topic Architecture.
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138590
work_keys_str_mv AT danhaiverenaudaleispierreemile structuraldesignsynthesisusingmachinelearning