The Usage of the Harmony Search Algorithm for the Optimal Design Problem of Reinforced Concrete Retaining Walls

Abstract

In this paper, the Harmony Search (HS) algorithm is utilized to perform single and multivariate parametric studies to acquire the optimization of both size and cost of reinforced concrete (RC) retaining walls embedded in pure frictional soils. The geotechnical properties of the backfill and foundation soil such as shear strength angle, unit weight, and the ultimate bearing pressure of the soil have been used to create different cases for evaluating the effects of site properties on the size and cost of the wall. The change of depth of excavation and surcharge loading condition is fictionalized for generating different environmental conditions for all envisaged soil profiles to predict possible rates of influences. The unit cost of the concrete has also been evaluated as a variant to show the economic constraints on the selection of structural materials. The results of the analyses represent the integrated influences of different significant parameters on the achievement of minimum cost-dimension optimization. Besides, a well-known commercial geotechnical engineering software is used to compare the appropriateness of the suggested designs in terms of both the attainment of geotechnical stability and the structural requirements. Consequently, this study can guide both researchers and designers to select the proper and optimal sections of RC-retaining wall systems with simultaneous analyses of parameters that are influenced by the design process. Furthermore, the optimization results indicate that a significant cost reduction may be achieved when compared with the traditional pre-design method.

Optimal Design of Reinforced Concrete Materials in Construction

“…The majority of previous studies focused on the optimization of individual RC structural elements, such as slabs [ 13 , 23 , 24 ], beams [ 12 , 18 , 22 ], columns [ 15 , 16 , 25 ], footings [ 21 , 26 , 27 ], and retaining walls [ 19 , 28 , 29 ]. The design procedures in these studies were subjected to specific code restrictions, such as the American concrete institute (ACI 318-19, ACI 318-14, ACI 318-05), Indian standards (IS: 456), Eurocode 2 (EN 1992-1-1:2004/A1:2014), and Brazilian standards (ABNT NBR 6118:2014, ABNT NBR 6118:2007).…”

Effects of Concrete Grades and Column Spacings on the Optimal Design of Reinforced Concrete Buildings

“…Many researchers used nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithms to generate random design variables using stochastic methods to deal with such problems. These algorithms include artificial bee colony algorithm [3], genetic algorithms [17][18][19][20], simulated annealing [14,21], ant colony optimization [22,23], harmony search [13,24,25], cuckoo search [26], and firefly algorithm [27]. Because the design office practice is mostly based on simple Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, several researchers tested the applicability of the solver tool provided by Microsoft Excel in the field of structural optimization [12,16,[28][29][30][31].…”

Adaptive Harmony Search for Tuned Liquid Damper Optimization under Seismic Excitation

“…This algorithm, which aims to achieve the best harmony, can search for a favorite harmony in the memory bank during the search process, create a melody similar to this harmony, or improvise for optimum harmony by creating an unheard harmony from scratch [14]. The effect of the harmony search algorithm on design optimization has been supported by various studies [15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. In recent years, it has become a preferred algorithm in damper optimization by being applied in the design of mass and liquid dampers [2,22,23].…”