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| Computer-Aided Structural Design Software | |
In 1975, researchers in the Georgia Tech
School of Civil
Engineering initiated development of a sophisticated structural
information processing system capable of performing finite
element analysis and structural design.
Led by civil engineering
professors Drs. Leroy Emkin and Kenneth Will, the group produced
a software product called GT STRUDL®, which represents Georgia
Tech Structural Design Language. Since 1979, it has become the
largest revenue-producing technology ever licensed by Georgia
Tech, and it is used daily by thousands of engineers in about 30
countries worldwide.
Today, with a staff of 15, the Georgia Tech Computer-Aided
Structural Engineering Center (CASE), continues to research and
develop GT STRUDL. It serves as a "technological pipeline"
through which research results and development flow quickly and
efficiently to industry, government and educational institutions.
The result is a software product that is frequently updated and
provides users with state-of-the-art structural analysis and
design technology.
GT STRUDL takes engineers' initial ideas, performs
mathematical calculations and rapidly predicts how a structure
would behave under a variety of loads and stresses. The most
recent version of the software operates on PCs and workstations
with a powerful Windows-based, menu-driven graphical user
interface.
GT STRUDL is now used by more than 800 companies in the fields
of construction, heavy industry, plant design, civil works
projects, commercial buildings, governmental agencies and
educational institutions for the structural design of thousands
of projects annually.
Among the organizations using GT STRUDL are
the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Southern Company, Bechtel
Corp., Mitsubishi, Samsung and the California Department of
Transportation. Structure types designed by GT STRUDL include
high-rise buildings, large towers, cable-stayed bridges, power
plants, flood control dams, offshore platforms, boiler buildings
and general industrial structures.
Examples of structures designed with the aid of GT STRUDL are
Atlanta's Marriott Marquis, the First Interstate World Center in
Los Angeles, Two Prudential Plaza in Chicago, the Oeresund Link
bridge between Denmark and Sweden and the Three Gorges hydro-
electric project in China.
Courtesy of Dr. Leroy Emkin
First Interstate World Center in Los Angeles is one of many structures
worldwide designed with the help of GT-STRUDL, a Georgia Tech-
developed structural information processing system.
For more information, contact
Dr. Leroy Emkin, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0355. (Telephone:
404-894-2260) (E-mail:
leroy.emkin@ce.gatech.edu)
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