EXTENDING CONSTRAINT SATISFACTION PROBLEM-SOLVING IN STRUCTURAL DESIGN

In this article we address the problem of constraint satisfaction in structural design and present a theory of fuzzy constraint satisfaction (FCSP). Constraints based on fuzzy relations can be either hard and soft. Using fuzzy constraint satisfaction we are able to reason about the degree a constraint is satisfied, thus avoiding a static partition into hard and soft constraints as traditionally used. Various functions and comparators are defined for searching the best solution. We exploit object-oriented programming methods to implement FCSP for structural design.