![[Case Western Reserve University -- Toolbar]](/pix/lowpro.gif)
Posted 11/6/97
It used to be that civil engineers often over-built structures because they were forced to make conservative assumptions and then design structures with this data. With the advent of computer modeling, engineers and engineering students can design less conservatively and more economically because they have a better reading of how a structure will behave under different conditions.
Two civil engineers at Case Western Reserve University are about to make computer modeling elementary for juniors and seniors taking structural analysis and design courses.
Robert Mullen, professor, and Arthur Huckelbridge, associate professor, both from the Department of Civil Engineering, together will receive a $10,000 grant from CWRU's Walter Nord Program. During the fall and spring semesters, they plan to introduce students to a network-supported computer modeling system to help them better understand the principles of structural engineering.
The instructional system is based on a computer language called Java that will make it easier and more accurate to analyze and design structures.
"The object of the Nord grant is to make this computer modeling process a little more user-friendly and Web-based," Mullen said.
Students taking the analysis and design courses traditionally have used in-house software called STAN to help them study the behavior of structures. It has been the primary computer-based teaching tool at CWRU for structural behavior since the early 1980s. The software describes a structure, its supports, and the loads it can withstand so that the students can calculate the forces and stresses on the structure.
The new system will include a structural analysis program, a graphical post processor, and a self-paced learning module. These educational tools will explain the analysis process and provide information about computer modeling of structures.
The system will contain analytical and graphic packages for computing and displaying the students' structural models while they use the package. It will be available to other schools via the Internet.
"The students will be able to see a picture depicting the magnitude of different forces on a structure, so it will be easier for them to find mistakes in their analysis," Mullen said. "If, for example, a student were to use feet instead of inches for a calculation, it would be obvious by looking at the picture."
Huckelbridge contends that the new modeling tool will be less intimidating for students and, as a result, it will be an incentive for them to try new things.
Most of the students struggle with computer modeling. Previously, only students who were aggressive enough to seek help and ask questions were able to grasp the concepts as thoroughly as they should.
"Hopefully this new tool will help students overcome some of their reticence and will allow the computer to do some of the hand-holding we did in the past," Huckelbridge said.
Mullen noted that one of the most difficult tasks for students when they first learn structural engineering is to appreciate the relationship between an actual structure and the computer model that helps to predict behavior.
Typically building codes describe what loads a structure must be able to withstand for certain geographical locations, Huckelbridge said. Engineers work with a lot of givens and they go through a rote procedure to predict behavior under certain scenarios, he added.
"In designing structures, there is no single correct solution. The engineer's job is to evaluate different solutions and how to use them most effectively," Huckelbridge said. "Students starting out don't have any feel for this. All we can do is to try to begin them on that path."
Mullen believes that the new system will provide students with a smoother transition to the commercial software used by engineers.
![[Toolbar]](/pix/ribbon.gif){kind=small}