Steel-Concrete Composite Beam Design Using Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

The advantages of concrete and steel can be gained to the fullest extent by proportioning and integrating them efficiently. For finding out optimal combination of constituent materials in the composite beam, Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used in the present work. Microsoft VB is used to program the algorithm, keeping in view the simplicity, flexibility, effectiveness and user friendly features of the language. GA based routines are developed to find out optimum sections of steel beam and RCC slab and optimum number of shear connectors with the objective of minimizing cost of the beam using design method as per the Indian code, IS: 11384–1985. Plastic moment capacity, deflection and stress constraints are imposed to direct the search towards feasible region. The capability of the developed program is demonstrated by including optimum design examples of fixed and variable beam spacing considering with and without RCC slab.