This book introduces an auto‐design‐based optimization for building frames using an artificial neural network (ANN)‐based Lagrange method and novel genetic algorithm (GA). The work of great mathematician Joseph‐Louis Lagrange and ANNs are merged to identify parameters that optimize structural frames of reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete, and steel frames subject to one or more design constraints. New features for enhancing conventional GA are also demonstrated to optimize structural frames. New features for optimizing multiple design targets of the building frames are highlighted, while design requirements imposed by codes are automatically satisfied. Chapters provide readers with an understanding of how both ANN‐based and novel GA‐based structural optimization can be implemented in holistically optimizing designated design targets for building structural frames, guiding readers toward more rational designs that is consistent with American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and American Concrete Institute (ACI) standards. ANN‐based holistic designs of multi‐story frames in general and reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete, and steel frames in particular, are introduced. This book suits structural engineers, architects, and graduate students in the field of building frame designs and is heavily illustrated with color figures and tables.

Artificial Neural Network-based Optimized Design of Reinforced Concrete Structures introduces AI-based Lagrange optimization techniques that can enable more rational engineering decisions for concrete structures while conforming to codes of practice. It shows how objective functions including cost, CO2 emissions, and structural weight of concrete structures are optimized either separately or simultaneously while satisfying constraining design conditions using an ANN-based Lagrange algorithm. Any design target can be adopted as an objective function. Many optimized design examples are verified by both conventional structural calculations and big datasets. Uniquely applies the new powerful tools of AI to concrete structural design and optimization Multi-objective functions of concrete structures optimized either separately or simultaneously Design requirements imposed by codes are automatically satisfied by constraining conditions Heavily illustrated in color with practical design examples The book suits undergraduate and graduate students who have an understanding of collegelevel calculus and will be especially beneficial to engineers and contractors who seek to optimize concrete structures.

At the heart of the optimization domain are mathematical modeling of the problem and the solution methodologies. The problems are becoming larger and with growing complexity. Such problems are becoming cumbersome when handled by traditional optimization methods. This has motivated researchers to resort to artificial intelligence (AI)-based, nature-inspired solution methodologies or algorithms. The Handbook of AI-based Metaheuristics provides a wide-ranging reference to the theoretical and mathematical formulations of metaheuristics, including bio-inspired, swarm-based, socio-cultural, and physics-based methods or algorithms; their testing and validation, along with detailed illustrative solutions and applications; and newly devised metaheuristic algorithms. This will be a valuable reference for researchers in industry and academia, as well as for all Master’s and PhD students working in the metaheuristics and applications domains.

This volume and its companion volume includes the edited versions of the principal lectures and selected papers presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Optimization and Decision Support Systems in Civil Engineering. The Institute was held in the Department of Civil Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh from June 25th to July 6th 1989 and was attended by eighty participants from Universities and Research Institutes around the world. A number of practising civil and structural engineers also attended. The lectures and papers have been divided into two volumes to reflect the dual themes of the Institute namely Optimization and Decision Support Systems in Civil Engineering. Planning for this ASI commenced in late 1986 when Andrew Templeman and I discussed developments in the use of the systems approach in civil engineering. A little later it became clear that much of this approach could be realised through the use of knowledge-based systems and artificial intelligence techniques. Both Don Grierson and John Gero indicated at an early stage how important it would be to include knowledge-based systems within the scope of the Institute. The title of the Institute could have been: 'Civil Engineering Systems' as this would have reflected the range of systems applications to civil engineering problems considered by the Institute. These volumes therefore reflect the full range of these problems including: structural analysis and design; water resources engineering; geotechnical engineering; transportation and environmental engineering.

Performance-Based Optimization of Structures introduces a method to bridge the gap between structural optimization theory and its practical application to structural engineering. The Performance-Based Optimization (PBO) method combines modern structural optimisation theory with performance based design concepts to produce a powerful technique for use in structural design. This book provides the latest PBO techniques for achieving optimal topologies and shapes of continuum structures with stress, displacement and mean compliance constraints. The emphasis is strongly placed on practical applications of automated PBO techniques to the strut-and-tie modelling of structural concrete, which includes reinforced and prestressed concrete structures. Basic concepts underlying the development of strut-and-lie models, design optimization procedure, and detailing of structural concrete are described in detail. Alternative approaches to topology optimization are also introduced. The book contains numerous practical design examples illustrating the nature of the load transfer mechanism of structures.

This book engages in an ongoing topic, such as the implementation of nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithms, with a main concentration on optimization problems in different fields of engineering optimization applications. The chapters of the book provide concise overviews of various nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithms, defining their profits in obtaining the optimal solutions of tiresome engineering design problems that cannot be efficiently resolved via conventional mathematical-based techniques. Thus, the chapters report on advanced studies on the applications of not only the traditional, but also the contemporary certain nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithms to specific engineering optimization problems with single and multi-objectives. Harmony search, artificial bee colony, teaching learning-based optimization, electrostatic discharge, grasshopper, backtracking search, and interactive search are just some of the methods exhibited and consulted step by step in application contexts. The book is a perfect guide for graduate students, researchers, academicians, and professionals willing to use metaheuristic algorithms in engineering optimization applications.