SBIR-STTR Award

Protection Engineering Consultants, LLC (PEC) has teamed with Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) Weapon Assessment Group to combine each organization's strengths with the goal of developing a novel approach for auto-designing both baseline and modified target structures of various construction types and orthogonal and non-orthogonal orientations to be used in weaponeering analyses. Our approach will optimize the existing STMG rule bases and complement those with physics-based machine learning algorithms to assist in target auto-design for the 15-minute weaponeering cycle. We also plan to integrate a powerful open-source matrix analysis utility. This utility will primarily support auto-design functions for longer weaponeering cycles, special target structure studies, and situations involving non-conventional loading conditions, such as high seismic and wind hazards. These new auto-designer features will be brought together in the form of a user-friendly software toolkit"•the Smart Target Design Assist (STDA) toolkit"•that will integrate seamlessly with the existing STMG and Endgame Framework platforms. Our Phase I focus will be on categorizing the major building construction types currently covered in target generation approaches, identifying a generalized set of design parameters by structure type, and demonstrating feasibility of our auto-designer approach for a reinforced concrete framed structure type.

The Air Force (AF) is in need of an auto-designer tool that can be applied to verify the design adequacy of both baseline and modified target structures for weaponeering applications. The desired approach would allow for the auto-designer tool to apply structural engineering calculations to verify that structural components are adequately sized. Any alterations to the structure size, column spacing, wall span, etc. would result in a change to the structural component sizing. Additionally, the AF would like the result of the effort to be a software tool that is tied into AFRL’s Endgame Framework, for use in existing weaponeering tools. In Phase I, a framework for a novel auto-designer tool - The Smart Target Design Assist Toolkit (STDAT) - was developed. The core programmatic architecture of STDAT was created in Python and designed to interface with Smart Target Model Generator (STMG) metadata. STDAT offers a powerful, yet expedient multi-degree-of-freedom linear and nonlinear structural analysis and design capability that can be leveraged for 15-minute weaponeering cycles and longer duration special studies. Feasibility of the STDAT framework was demonstrated for the reinforced concrete framed light office building construction type. Two case studies were evaluated: a rectangular and non-rectangular multi-story, multi-bay building model generated in STMG and subjected to a multi-column removal scenario to represent model modifications for a first-story lobby space. For both case studies, STDAT was used to automatically analyze and re-design the modified building model in less than 30 seconds. This Phase II effort aims to expand the STDAT framework, both in terms of new capability and construction types, and execute a phased integration approach into the Endgame Framework (EF) platform. A "smart" structural design process will couple both existing/improved STMG rule bases and newly developed structural design functions with a design optimization algorithm that will afford the user with control over how and where the building design is optimized. The STDAT framework will be enhanced to handle generalized lateral load analysis (seismic and wind) and expanded to include three (3) additional construction types: reinforced concrete framed high-rise construction, steel framed construction, and masonry construction. A phased approach will then be taken to fully integrate STDAT into EF. Custom STMG/STDAT import and export utilities will first be developed, to facilitate EF compatibility testing, external module testing, and to offer an STDAT standalone usage mode. Once EF compatibility testing is complete, custom STDAT plug-ins will then be developed to permit direct interrogation of EF metadata and a fully automated usage mode within the EF platform.