This research is to study the effect of materials selection on the minimum cost for optimal design of reinforced concrete simple beams using Hill Climbing Algorithm Cross sections of simply supported beams under uniform load were designed for bending and shear strength according to standard of the Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT 1008-38 strength design method) The total cost of beams was calculated from materials and labor costs From the study, it was found that the selection of steel grade affected the minimum cost of beams more than that of compressive strength of concrete Considering the selection of steel grade, it can be seen that SD40 gave the lower minimum total cost than that of SD30 for all compressive strength levels From the result, it can be concluded that the Hill Climbing Algorithm can help to study the effect of materials selection on the minimum cost for optimal design of reinforced concrete simply supported beams

Effect of materials selection on the minimum cost for optimal design of reinforced concrete beams using hill climbing algorithm

A computer program for optimization of reinforced concrete cross section of an arbitrary shape loaded with combined biaxial bending and axial load is presented in the graduation thesis. The computation takes place in the Excel computer program, optimization is performed with the Solver Add–in. The perimeter of the cross section area is presented as a polygon, the steel reinforcment bars are input as points in the area. The stress-strain relationship of the conventional strength concrete and steel rebar are compliant with the EC2 code. Bernoulli’s assumption that plane sections remain plane is valid. By employing Green’s Theorem, the double integral of the longitudinal stresses is transformed to line integral along the cross sections perimeter. For each section of the polygon, the forces are computed. All equations on the section level are analytical in nature. The verification of the program is performed by comparing the results obtained on standard cross sections with results available in the literature. The application of the computer program is illustrated with asymetrical RC cross-section design example.

Žiga Krofl

Papers

Computer program for optimum design of reinforced concrete sections