Optimum Design of Laterally Supported Castellated Beams Using Natural Forest Regeneration Algorithm

Abstract

In this paper, a new meta-heuristic algorithm called natural forest regeneration is applied for finding the optimal design of castellated beams. These beams have found widespread usage in buildings because of great savings in materials and construction costs. Material economy in combination with aesthetic and architectural design has lead to sections made from standard I-beam with increased cross-sectional height and load-carrying capacity in bending. Here, two common types of web opening beams are considered as design problems: beams with hexagonal openings and beams with circular openings. Also, in this paper, castellated beams are studied with and without filled holes. The new optimization algorithm is used for obtaining the solution of the design problem. For this purpose, the minimum cost is taken as the design objective function, and three benchmark problems are selected from literature to solve by this algorithm. Numerical results show the robustness of the NFR algorithm for optimum design of these beams and prove that the proposed algorithm has good performance. The results have been compared to those reported in literature, and it is observed that using the NFR algorithm leads to the best results in most of the cases. Also, it is concluded that the use of beam with hexagonal opening leads to smaller amount of steel material in unfilled cases, but in filled cases, where the beam span is large, using of beams with circular holes can be a better choice in terms of economy.