Investigating the effect of column orientations on minimum weight design of steel frames

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, İnşaat Mühendisliği Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2010

Öğrenci: MELİSA KIZILKAN

Danışman: OĞUZHAN HASANÇEBİ

Özet:

Steel has become widespread and now it can be accepted as the candidate of being main material for the structural systems with its excellent properties. Its high quality, durability, stability, low maintenance costs and opportunity of fast construction are the advantages of steel. The correct use of the material is important for steel’s bright prospects. The need for weight optimization becomes important at this point. Available sources are used economically through optimization. Optimization brings material savings and at last economy. Optimization can be achieved with different ways. This thesis investigates the effect of the appropriate choice of column orientation on minimum weight design of steel frames. Evolution strategies (ESs) method, which is one of the three mainstreams of evolutionary algorithms, is used as the optimizer in this study to deal with the current problem of interest. A new evolution strategy (ES) algorithm is proposed, where design variables are considered simultaneously as cross-sectional dimensions (size variables) and orientation of column members (orientation variables). The resulting algorithm is computerized in a design optimization software called OFES. This software has many capabilities addressing to issues encountered in practical applications, such as producing designs according to TS-648 and ASD-AISC design provisions. The effect of column orientations is numerically studied using six examples with practical design considerations. In these examples, first steel structures are sized for minimum weight considering the size variables only, where orientations of the column members are initially assigned and kept constant during optimization process. Next, the weight optimum design of structures are implemented using both size and orientation design variables. It is shown that the inclusion of column orientations produces designs which are generally 4 to 8 % lesser in weight than the cases where only size variables are employed.