Title: Research on structure emergence based on cellular automata

Authors: Renbin Xiao; Yingcong Wang; Zhenwu Tao

Addresses: School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China ' School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China ' China Mobile Communications Corporation, Beijing 100033, China

Abstract: In order to reveal the complexity regularity of structure emergence, this paper adopts cellular automata to describe its local interactions, and a continuous structure emergence model based on cellular automata is proposed. At first, the model uses the unit with regular shape to make mesh generation of continuous structure, and adopts the finite element method to calculate the local strain energy density. Then it directly maps the mesh to the evolutionary environment of the cellular automata, and uses PID control theory and fully stressed design criterion to reconstruct local evolutionary rule of the cellular based on the strain energy. At last, it obtains the variation coefficients of the unit density through cellular evolution, thus getting a new design domain. The control parameters of the interaction rule and neighbourhood structure are also analysed. Furthermore, an optimal topology emergence example of the square plate dissipating heat is given. Finally, the characteristics of the proposed structure emergence model based on cellular automata are summarises.

Keywords: structure emergence; cellular automata; topology optimisation; complexity; mesh generation; finite element method; FEM; strain energy density; PID control; fully stressed design; variation coefficients; interaction rule; neighbourhood structure; square plates; heat dissipation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIC.2014.060608

International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation, 2014 Vol.6 No.2, pp.126 - 139

Received: 24 Dec 2013
Accepted: 24 Dec 2013

Published online: 27 Sep 2014 *

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