Author(s)

Abobakr A. A. Aga¹, Fathelrahman M. Adam^2,3

¹Saudi Automotive Services Company, Jedah, KSA.
²Department of Civil Engineering, Jazan University, Jazan, KSA.
³Nile Valley University, Khartoum, Sudan.

In this paper, a design optimization for the reinforced concrete plane frame structure has been done in order to minimize the cost of the concrete and steel for beams and columns by adopting the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) computational model trough the NeuroShell-2 software program. The design procedure conforms to the ACI-318-08 Code. The variables used for design optimization are the width, depth and the area of reinforced steel, including longitudinal reinforcement and shear reinforcement. A three-bay two-story RC frame is modeled with selecting different span length and different load cases. Acceptable design results are obtained from more than 50 examples which are subjected to all the constraints of the ACI Code, using different cross-section sizes and these results are used to train the NeuroShell-2 program. The results obtained demonstrate the efficiency of the ANN procedure for the multi story RC frame design.

Optimization Design, RC Beam Design, RC Column Design, Artificial Neural Network

Aga, A. and Adam, F. (2015) Design Optimization of Reinforced Concrete Frames. Open Journal of Civil Engineering, 5, 74-83. doi: 10.4236/ojce.2015.51008.