Optimum design of concrete cable-stayed bridges

The design of cable-stayed bridges involves a significant number of design variables and design objectives. The concrete cable-stayed bridge optimization is formulated here as a multi-objective optimization problem with objectives of minimum cost, minimum deflections and minimum stresses. A numerical method is developed to obtain the optimum design of such structures. This numerical method includes: structural analysis, sensitivity analysis and optimization. The structural analysis accounts for all the relevant effects (concrete time-dependent effects, construction stages and geometrical nonlinear effects). The structural response to changes in the design variables is achieved by a discrete direct sensitivity analysis procedure, and an entropy-based approach was used for structural optimization. The features and applicability of the proposed method are demonstrated by numerical examples concerning the optimization of a real-sized concrete cable-stayed bridge.