Optimal Shape of Dams Subject to Earthquakes

Simões, Luís; Lapa, José Roberto do Amaral

doi:10.4203/ccp.25.4.4

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“…Most of these researches are focused on design of optimal shape of arch dams rather than gravity dams. Simoes and Lapa (1994) and Simoes (1995) presented optimal design of dams using quadratic programming algorithm. They investigated the optimum shape of dams under static and dynamic loadings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of genetic programming in shape optimization of concrete gravity dams by metaheuristics

2014

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A gravity dam maintains its stability against the external loads by its massive size. Hence, minimization of the weight of the dam can remarkably reduce the construction costs. In this paper, a procedure for finding optimal shape of concrete gravity dams with a computationally efficient approach is introduced. Genetic programming (GP) in conjunction with metaheuristics is used for this purpose. As a case study, shape optimization of the Bluestone dam is presented. Pseudo-dynamic analysis is carried out on a total number of 322 models in order to establish a database of the results. This database is then used to find appropriate relations based on GP for design criteria of the dam. This procedure eliminates the necessity of the time-consuming process of structural analyses in evolutionary optimization methods. The method is hybridized with three different metaheuristics, including particle swarm optimization, firefly algorithm (FA), and teaching-learning-based optimization, and a comparison is made. The results show that although all algorithms are very suitable, FA is slightly superior to other two algorithms in finding a lighter structure in less number of iterations. The proposed method reduces the weight of dam up to 14.6% with very low computational effort.Subjects: Computer Aided Design (CAD); Structural Engineering; Water Engineering . His areas of research are numerical methods, optimization in civil engineering problems, and computational hydraulics and fluid dynamics. Mohsen Sattari is an MSc graduate student of earthquake engineering from Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran. His areas of interest are earthquake engineering, analysis of gravity dams, and optimization. Mohammad Hadi Makiabadi is an MSc graduate student of earthquake engineering from Shiraz University of Technology and a PhD student of structural engineering in Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran. His areas of research are structural optimization, seismic behavior of structures, and reliability. PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENTDams are among the most important hydraulic structures which are used for various purposes. Gravity dams are solid concrete structures that maintain their stability against design loads from geometric shape to mass and strength of the concrete. Hence, weight minimization of the dam can remarkably reduce the construction costs. In this paper, a procedure for finding optimal shape of concrete gravity dams with minimum weight is introduced. The procedure is computationally efficient and considerably reduces the number of structural analyses required for the design. Genetic programming (GP) along with population-based optimization approaches is used for this purpose. Optimization of the Bluestone dam is presented as a case study. By pseudo-dynamic analyses, a database is developed to find appropriate relations for design criteria of dam based on genetic programming. The developed equations are then hybridized with three different population-based optimization techniques and a comparison is made.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%