Building Block Approach to support the decision-making process in structure design: a case study

Abstract

A Building Block Approach design strategy is used in this work to 
develop a multi-material elevator base, starting from coupon-level 
tests and reaching the component level. Adhesives and glass-fiber 
composites are characterized and a multi-material bonded element 
is constructed in order to conduct the design process towards the 
best possible option. Once the structure is designed, the elevator 
base is subjected to loadings at different levels in order to evaluate 
its structural integrity. The proposed design-by-validation process 
allows to reach an optimum structure, where its components are 
validated during the process and not only after the preliminary 
design is completed. This methodology allows a proper decisionmaking process and enhances the obtained result as well as 
optimizing time and cost to reach a component that fulfils the 
requirements, reducing the number of design attempts to reach 
final products.
Correlation between simulations and experimental results show 
that the proposed criteria can be used to consistently predetermine 
the damage load and its location, especially when products of 
lower requirement or fewer reliability concerns are designed. The 
proposed method also allows failure type discrimination and gives 
structural behavior information, which might be interesting for 
further steps in the design process. As a result of the methodology 
application in the study case, a 50 % weight reduction is obtained 
in an elevator base structure, where the design is completely 
validated by component level tests, ensuring a proper load-bearing 
capacity.