Abstract

Abstract

The present work presents the application of the ISR analogy (Idealized Smeared Reinforcement) for the optimization of reinforced concrete frames, focusing fully on the reinforcement of its elements. A disclosure of the ISR analogy applied to different concrete structural elements is developed in order to build different rebar optimization formulations and algorithms from such ISR formulations for each type of element. Thereafter, such optimization formulations are joint and adapted for its application to reinforced concrete plane frames, in a way in which the mere numerical models and analysis are built using the reinforcement details obtained from the reinforcement optimizations. Comparisons of results between the different rebar and ISR optimization procedures are made, as well as an analysis of the performance regarding its application to RC frame models, considering weight of the structure, lateral stiffness, and quality of reinforcement detailing. Results show that optimum design considering symmetric reinforcement in columns are just slightly higher than asymmetric designs regarding cost and reinforcing area, and sometimes even lower; therefore, only symmetric reinforcement in columns was considered for this research when applied to the RC frame models, using classical optimization algorithms (the Steepest Gradient Descent method was employed here), as it was found that great savings in time with quite acceptable accuracy could be enhanced in relation with metaheuristic optimization algorithms. The algorithms hereby developed for the rebar optimization through simple search from the ISR analogy resulted quite simple for replication.