Design Optimization of RC Frames using Particle Swarm Optimization Technique

Abstract

Design of portal frames were carried out for different grades of steel with a well-defined objective function framed in order to minimize the cost of construction of reinfofced concrete portal frames for different spans using direct stiffness method. The design variables that are considered are the volume of steel used for reinforcement, volume of concrete for sectional members that is got from the width, depth of the required section. The constrains for the design of beams were done according to the Indian codal provisions. Separate coding was written in MATLAB to determine the optimal design of beams. The optimal design results obtained had a minimum usage of concrete and steel when compared to the normal one with a variation of 5% for the beam and 3% for the column. The reduction in cost is due to reduction in the cross-section as a result of the optimization technique. Nearly 100 designed samples using different cross-section areas were carried out and the final conclusions were derived and found to provide optimal values to certain extent which would be useful for the design engineers.