Software for Structural engineering. Past, Present and future.

Finite Elements, the beginning…. Ray Clough published “The Finite Element method in plane stress analysis”. The finite element designation was invented. The study was based in a previous joint work with Jon Turner from Boing called “Stiffness and Deflection Analyses of complex structures” 1960 Eduard L. Wilson and Ray Clough developed the SMIS. Symbolic Matrix Interpretative System. The computer programs SMIS and CAL were designed to assist in the teaching of matrix and direct stiffness methods for structural analysis. These programs, or modified versions of the programs, are used in most of the major engineering schools in the United States and in a large number of foreign universities 1963

Eduard L. Wilson developed numerical methods and computer programs for the stress analysis of the Minuteman missile and the APOLLO space capsule 1960-1965 Eduard L. Wilson developed the first versions of the generic Structural Analysis Program called SAP 1969 Dr. Jurgen Bathe updated dynamic response options and developed additional documentation to the release of the public domain SAP IV Eduard L. Wilson developed the first versions of ETABS 1973 First versions of SAP80 1985

The dawn of a great new Era in terms of computing and simulation These were extraordinary days for science and engineering… The dawn of a great new Era in terms of computing and simulation Prof. Ed. Wilson Ray Clough

Ray Clough was particularly interested in Dams design and modeling His work was making the world a better and safer place

CSI Computers & Structures 1970 – Ashraf Habibullah finishes his masters at Berkeley University 1975 – Started CSI, Computers & Structures, today, worldly recognized as a reference in the field of software for structural analysis and earthquake engineering

Structural analysis software…the present A huge number of structural software has been developed in the last 40 years under the principles of the finite elements. In Wikipedia we can find 156 references of main structural and finite element related software

Structural analysis software…the present Many structural procedures and design codes have been developed and implemented all over the world Most software has been implementing its own versions of the structural codes design rules and checks

Structural analysis software…the present Software continues to evolve. 3D and interoperability are clear directions at the present.

Structural analysis software…the present Software and hardware are allowing for full integration of all details about structural engineering and construction projects

Structural analysis software…the present Software and hardware are allowing for full integration of all details about structural engineering and construction projects

Structural analysis software…the present BIM is shaping the present

Structural analysis software…Challenges and future We must not confuse software evolution with less human responsibility. On the contrary. As software automates more, we have to be more aware and careful.

Structural analysis software…and the Structural Engineer Structural engineers have a huge responsibility in our society The work of structural engineers must be recognized The work of structural engineers must be performed over a solid education and scientific background

Structural analysis software…and the Structural Engineer The work of structural engineers should use computational software as long as the software is perfectly clear and does not hide from the user, hypothesis, procedures and should never be used as a black box Structural software should not limit or restrain in any way the ability to design, check and model structures in any conceivable way that an engineer may choose. An engineer can choose to make important designs using a pencil and a paper.

The future of structural software…a dream Structural software will communicate in a more intelligent way with 3D BIM models in the sense of extracting and adding information to and from the analysis models that are useful and that are being used Design codes will become more oriented to computational usage, but structural software will let the implementation of design codes to be open source. Structural engineers will progressively learn how to code high level languages The concepts of sub-structuring and localized modelling, along with the increase of capacity of software and hardware will allow for a greater flexibility in the way to idealize and plan structural models

The future of structural software…a dream Structural software will be simultaneously used as a professional tool, but also as an academic tool. Students will heavily rely in the clear exposure of computational and mechanical concepts from the software as also in the observation of the open source structural codes to learn engineering Structural software will be more commonly connected to Artificial Intelligence assisting tools, to help predesign, automate default options, and optimize design in general

a Message from Ashraf Habibullah