A scheme for numerical representation of graph structures in engineering design

Journal article (2014)

Authors

David F. Wyatt University of Cambridge

David C. Wynn University of Cambridge

P.J. Clarkson University of Cambridge

Affiliation

External organisation

Graph theory Computational design Design representation System architecture Design space visualization

To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c4088cc9-ace5-4509-a6f6-57ceca0b78a7

More Info

expand_more

Published Date

2014

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Affiliation

External organisation

Abstract

Graph structures are fundamental in many aspects of design. This paper discusses a way to improve access to design spaces of graph structures, by converting graph structures into numerical values and vice versa. Mathematical properties of such conversions are described, and those that are desirable are identified. A candidate conversion algorithm, Indexed Stacked Blocks, is proposed. Its use and benefits are illustrated through an example graph-structure design problem. The example demonstrates that such conversions allow design spaces of graph structures to be visualized, sampled, and evaluated. In principle, they also allow other powerful numerical techniques to be applied to the design of graph-structure-based systems.