International Journal of Optimization in Civil Engineering
Volume:9 Issue: 1, Winter 2019

In the present study, ten steel-moment resisting frames (SMRFs) having different numbers of stories ranging from 3 to 20 stories and fundamental periods of vibration ranging from 0.3 to 3.0 second were optimized subjected to a set of earthquake ground motions using the concept of uniform damage distribution along the height of the structures. Based on the step-by-step optimization algorithm developed for uniform damage distribution, ductility-dependent strength reduction factor spectra were computed subjected to a given far-fault earthquake ground motion. Then, the mean ductility reduction factors subjected to 20 strong ground motions were computed and compared with those designed based on load pattern of ASCE-7-16 (similar to standard No. 2800) code provision. Results obtained from parametric studies indicate that, except in short-period structures, for moderate and high levels of inelastic demand the structures designed based on optimum load pattern with uniform damage distribution along the height require larger seismic design base shear strength when compared to the frames designed based on the code provisions, which is more pronounced for long-period structures i.e., the structural system becomes more flexible. This phenomenon can be associated to the P-delta effect tending to increase the story drift ratios of flexible structures, especially at the bottom stories. For practical purpose, a simplified expression which is a function of fundamental period and ductility demand to estimate ductility-dependent strength reduction factors of designed SMRFs according to code-based lateral load pattern is proposed.

Hybrid control system composed of a base isolation system and a magneto-rheological damper so-called smart base isolation is one of effective semi-active control system in controlling the seismic response of structures. In this paper, a design method is proposed for designing the smart base isolation system in order to achieve an effective performance under multiple earthquakes. The base mass, the base stiffness and the weighting parameter of H2/linear quadratic Gaussian control algorithm, which is used to determine the desired control force, have been considered as the design variables and different earthquake records have been considered as design earthquakes. First, the optimum values of these variables under each of the considered earthquakes have been determined by using the genetic algorithm and then, an optimum control system has been designed with multiple earthquakes-based design approach. The defined design objective is minimizing the peak base drift while the peak inter-story drift has been constrained. For numerical simulation, smart base isolation system is designed for controlling a four-story shear frame. The results show that when the control system designed for a specific earthquake is subjected to another earthquake, difference between the performance of this control system and the optimal case under that earthquake is considerable. Hence, the specific earthquake-based design approach is an inappropriate design procedure for smart base isolation. Also, it has been found that control system designed based on multiple earthquakes-based design approach shows effective performance in controlling the response of structure under a wide range of earthquakes.

Design of blast resistant structures is an important subject in structural engineering, attracting the attention of governments, researchers, and engineers. Thus, given the benefits of optimization in engineering, development and assessment of optimization methods for optimum design of structures against blast is of great importance. In this research, multi-objective optimization of steel moment frames subjected to blast is investigated. The considered objectives are minimization of the structural weight and minimization of the maximum inter-story drifts. The minimization of weight is related to obtain low cost designs and the minimization of inter-story drifts is related to obtain higher performance designs. By proposing a design methodology, a framework is developed for solving numerical problems. The developed framework is constructed by combining explicit finite element analysis of the structure and the NSGA-II optimization algorithm. The applicability and efficiency of the proposed method is shown through two numerical examples.

Endurance Time method is a time history dynamic analysis in which structures are subjected to increasing excitations. These excitations are known as endurance time excitation functions (ETEF). This study proposes a new method for generating ETEFs. In the proposed method, a new basis function for representing ETEFs is introduced. This type of ETEFs representation creates an intelligent space for this ETEFs simulating optimization problem. The proposed method is then applied in order to simulate new ETEFs. To investigate the efficiency of this proposed optimization space, newly generated ETEFs are compared with those simulated by conventional approaches. Results show an improvement in the accuracy of ETEFs as well as the reduction in the required computational time.

Intelligent building (IB) technologies have widespread applications in the building design and development. In this regard, it is necessary to develop intelligent building assessment models in order to satisfy the clients, professionals, and occupant's growing demands. To this end, this paper proposes an integrated analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and preference degree approach (PDA) under the fuzzy environment for the purpose of intelligent building assessment. Fuzzy AHP is employed to determine the local weights of performance criteria and the final weights of the intelligent building alternatives. Since, the final weights of intelligent buildings (IBs) are in the form of fuzzy numbers, fuzzy PDA is utilized to prioritize the intelligent buildings. Finally, fuzzy AHP-fuzzy PDA is proposed to assess the performance of five intelligent building alternatives in Isfahan, Iran.

In this paper, controlling the location of the tip of an L-shape beam under gravity field is investigated. The beam is covered with piezoelectric patches. The gravity filed moves the tip of beam downward and the actuators with induced voltage move the tip to the previous location. to optimize the best location and voltages for actuators, the particle swarm optimization algorithm code is developed. The results show that the best position for the most effective actuators is located at the corner of the beam. Also with considering the best location for patches, with lower induced voltage, the location of the tip of beam cab controlled. Also, the results show that with the optimum location of actuators and appropriate voltage lead to using minimum energy with the desired shape in the beam. The results are compared with those reported in previous work.

During the past two decades, some industries have been moving towards project-centered systems in many modern countries. Therefore, managing simultaneous projects with considering the limitations in resources, equipment and manpower is very crucial. In the real world, project-based organizations are always facing with two main important features. First, the construction projects are decentralized and their distances are long, and second, there are several construction projects undertaken at different time periods. Therefore, appropriate selection of projects with regard to the capabilities of the organization may lead with increasing an expected profitability. This paper investigates the multi-period decentralized multi construction-project and scheduling problem subject to resource constraints, optimal resource pool location, deterioration and batch ordering of nonrenewable resources altogether, for the first time in the literature. In order to describe the problem under consideration in this paper and obtaining the optimal solutions, a mixed integer linear programming model is developed. Finally, the impact of decision integration on the profit profile of an organization is comprehensively investigated by solving numerical examples and through developing some heuristic methods.