Evolutionary Structural Topology Optimization for Cantilever Construction of Continuous Rigid-Frame Bridge

Abstract

In this paper, an evolutionary structural optimization (ESO) method based on the Ishai stress and artificial material elements was used to optimize the structure topology of the cantilever construction of an actual continuous rigid-frame bridge with a new fasting structual system. In iteration process, the engineering infeasible solution was dealt with the engineering constraints; the checkboard problem was solved with the filter scheme, which used the average Ishai stress of the elements located inside the filter domain instead of that located at the center; moreover, the local stress concentration problem was also solved with the scheme of gradully decreasing the filter radius. Thus the iteration ran smoothly, then the optimizing results were obtained finally. The final topology model illustrates the feasibility of the fasting structual system, and the proposed methods are effective to the optimization design for the actual bridge.