A Computer-Aided Approach to Equilibrium Design Based on Graphic Statics and Combinatorial Variations

This article introduces a series of significant enhancements to the Combinatorial Equilibrium Modelling (CEM), a computer-aided form-finding approach to generate and control three-dimensional structures in static equilibrium based on topological considerations. In comparison to the initial formulation of the CEM, this article presents several procedures that extend the applicability of the CEM to several structural topologies and load cases, while allowing the designer to engage with different types of constraint-based optimisation problems. As described in the article, these new features of the CEM have been implemented in a digital tool for form-finding, which has been applied to a series of design examples and case studies to demonstrate the usability of the proposed approach for conceptual structural design.