Title: Performance-based earthquake engineering design of reinforced concrete structures using black-box optimisation

Authors: Mojtaba Komeili; Abbas S. Milani; Solomon Tesfamariam

Addresses: School of Engineering, University of British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC, V1V 1V7, Canada. ' School of Engineering, University of British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC, V1V 1V7, Canada. ' School of Engineering, University of British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC, V1V 1V7, Canada

Abstract: Earthquake-induced damage of structures has lead researchers to the development of performance-based design (PBD) methodologies. Performance levels in PBD are often specified as safety critical, essential/hazardous, basic and unacceptable levels, and are satisfied via iterative design processes. In this study, it is shown that acceptable performance levels in PBD can be achieved while minimising the corresponding design costs, by casting a simulation-based constraint optimisation problem. Two solution techniques, namely a full factorial design-of-experiment and a non-linear mixed discrete-continuous optimisation, are considered and implemented with the OpenSees system for two design examples: a reinforced concrete column and a portal frame.

Keywords: performance-based design; PBD; earthquake engineering; building vulnerability; design of experiments; DOE; nonlinear optimisation; sensitivity analysis; reinforced concrete structures; structural design; iterative design process; simulation; reinforced concrete columns; portal frames.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMSI.2012.046184

International Journal of Materials and Structural Integrity, 2012 Vol.6 No.1, pp.1 - 25

Published online: 18 Sep 2014 *

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