Engineering Design Loop: Tower Stability Optimizer

Design Process Stage

Design

Build

Test

Analyze

Improve

Ready. Set a starting design or press Run to let the design loop search automatically.

Starting Design

Base width 3 blocks

Tower height 5 blocks

Wind load 40 N

Live Readouts

Iteration

Stability margin

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Current score

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Best score

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How it works

Each "design" is a tower of stacked unit blocks with a footprint of base width W and height H. A steady horizontal wind force F pushes on it at half its height, creating an overturning moment about the downwind edge of the base:

Overturning moment  M_o = F · (H/2)
Resisting moment    M_r = m·g · (W/2)     (m = ρ·W²·H, self-weight)
Stability margin    S = M_r / M_o

S > 1 means the resisting moment from the tower's own weight beats the wind's tipping moment — the design stands. The design-loop score also charges a material cost, so bigger is not automatically better:

score = S − 0.15 · (blocks used)
blocks used = W² · H

Design — the loop proposes a new (W, H) by nudging one of them by ±1 from the current best.
Build — the tower mesh is rebuilt in 3D for that candidate.
Test — the wind load is applied and the overturning/resisting moments are computed.
Analyze — the score is compared against the current best.
Improve — a hill-climbing rule keeps the candidate only if its score is higher, otherwise it reverts and tries a different nudge next iteration — exactly the loop real engineers run physically, just automated here.

This mirrors the same iterative method used to size real building foundations, bridge piers and wind-turbine towers, where a stability check against overturning is one of the first calculations in the design.

Current design Best design found

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