Date of Award
2020
Document Type
Open Access Master's Report
Degree Name
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MS)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Advisor 1
Craig Friedrich
Committee Member 1
Kari Henquinet
Committee Member 2
John Gershenson
Abstract
This is an investigative report on the use of generative design and genetic algorithms in the design of energy-efficient buildings. It focuses on a workflow using Project Refinery© and Dynamo© in Revit® for multi-objective optimization and visualization, and Honeybee© for daylighting analysis. The workflow was not about to run completely due to instability in Dynamo, however daylighting analysis and visualizations were produced separately from demonstrations of Refinery. It concludes that while genetic algorithms have potential to be useful in energy-efficient building design, these programs are not yet fully developed and difficult to use without extensive background knowledge and fluency in Python, due to issues regarding incompatibility between software versions.
Recommended Citation
Thill, Johanna, "Generative Design in Energy Efficient Buildings", Open Access Master's Report, Michigan Technological University, 2020.