Analytical, Communication, and Information Technology Directions in the Structural Industry

Abstract

Since the advent of mainstream computer applications, the structural engineering community has strongly embraced technology. Furthermore, the structural community is a leader in the advancement of new software, hardware, and applications within the market. Developments over the last 10 years have greatly expanded structural engineering beyond the traditional analytical methods; essentially, information and communication technologies are changing the way people do business. To understand how these technologies are changing the design and construction of structural solutions to problems in building projects, a study was conducted to develop a deeper understanding into these areas. Industry experts across the United States were interviewed and surveyed on these directions to look at how structural engineering is changing and what to keep in mind when implementing technology on projects. The focus of this paper will be twofold. First, it will focus on information and communication technologies, in particular, building information modeling). Second, it will focus on structural analytical technologies that encompass analysis and design methods. Trends, advantages, and disadvantages, as well as future directions that practitioners are taking are discussed.