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International CAE Conference Program

 

Truss Design : Simulation & Optimisation using Scilab

Sanjeev Gahlot
Govt. India

The Truss Design Program is a demonstrator of the features and ease with which Scientists and Engineers can work in Scilab to model, analyse and simulate any problem without having to learn and write too much of software language code.

The Program is a structural analysis program for a 2-Dimensional Truss. The Matrix Method of Analysis was utilised to analyse the Truss based on the structure parameters input in the GUL Fields. The input event was captured to simultaneously sketch the Model on the same page so as to view and validate the parameter entered in the Field.

Due to variation in the numbers of joints and members the Input GUI Fields are created and removed on the fly based on the number of joints and members in the model.

The Program demonstrates effective Plotting, Simulation of Deflected Shape, Color Coding of Member Stresses & Optimisation. The available GUI controls were effectively utilised with their callback features to run the program interactively.

The Scilab features were analysed with its advantages and short comings. Suggestions were concretized for improvement in the Scilab for further development. The absence of objects in the Scilab makes the code cluttered and quite long to manage. The GUIs could increase in the future versions with full support for event triggering and catching mechanism. The editor has may be fine tuned to give the autocomplete feature available for many popular language IDEs. Overall it is a very powerful tool for the scientific and Engineers community to use to its fullest.