An eco-friendly reliability-based design optimization of intermediate reinforced concrete moment frames

Abstract

Failing to account for the stochastic nature of structural parameters such as material properties, external loads and geometric dimensions, can cause uncertainty about the safety of the design of an engineering structure; thus, assessing the reliability of a design seems necessary. The present study considered uncertainty related to the statistical nature of the parameters affecting the design of intermediate reinforced concrete (RC) moment frames in the process of achieving an optimal design. The reduction of CO2 emissions, which comprises a large percentage of greenhouse gas emissions, also must be considered from an environmental perspective in the design and construction of RC structures. Hence, an objective function was formulated that also minimizes CO2 emissions. In the objective function, the effective design parameters with probabilistic distributions have been considered when calculating the reliability index using the Monte Carlo simulation method. The limit state functions also are taken into account according to the design requirements in ACI 318-19. Ultimately, the performance of the formulated objective function in the reliability-based design optimization of four-story and nine-story intermediate RC moment frames is presented using four metaheuristic algorithms.