The Chartership Forum

Computational Engineering / module 2

Computational design and creativity

Concept design is not automated member sizing. What computation can contribute to an under-defined problem, and what it cannot.

What you will understand

  • Distinguish concept design from detailed sizing, and say what each needs from computation
  • Express a design problem as requirements, constraints and options
  • Use divergent and convergent thinking deliberately rather than by accident
  • Explain why a design problem has no single right answer
  • Record why an option was chosen, in a form somebody else can disagree with

Lessons

  1. Design is an under-defined problem

    Why engineering practice does not look like engineering education, and what follows for how computation is used.

  2. Structural form and efficiency

    What makes one form better than another, and how much of that a computer can measure.

Module summary
  • A design problem is under-defined: several answers satisfy it and they satisfy it differently
  • Requirements say what must be true; constraints say what may not be
  • Divergent thinking generates, convergent thinking selects, and doing both at once does neither
  • Computation is strongest at the convergent half and weakest at the divergent half
  • A numerical score is an input to a decision and never the decision
  • The reason for a choice is worth more six months later than the choice
Teaching basis and review status

These are educational models and exercises. Check their assumptions before using the results. The full technical content and every diagram have not yet been independently verified.

Concrete and steel calculations retain their stated first-generation Eurocode teaching basis. Use the standards and amendments specified for your project; do not mix generations without an appropriate design basis.

Read the lesson register and outstanding review notes

Check your understanding

Check yourself

What distinguishes a requirement from a constraint, and why does it matter?

Practice

A truss of 30 m span carries a midspan moment of 1,500 kN·m. Two depths are under consideration: 2.5 m and 4 m. Compute the chord force at the deeper option, in kN.