A postgraduate course on precast-prestressed concrete road bridges optimization

Abstract

This paper deals with a postgraduate course in project engineering that forms part of an MSc course in Concrete Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de València. The course is concerned first with the basic heuristic algorithms for structural optimization, and it then moves to the application of such algorithms to the practical design of real concrete structures such as walls, road portal and box frames, building frames, vaults, bridge piers, abutments and decks. Two design cases are presented. Simulated annealing (SA) is firstly applied to a prestressed concrete precast pedestrian bridges typically used in public works construction. The second type of structure analysed is a 35-35-35-35m prestressed concrete road bridge deck and 12m of width. A hybrid memetic algorithm (MA) is applied to the cost function objective. Finally, case studies indicate that heuristic optimization is a forthcoming option for the design of real-life prestressed structures.