Automatic Optimal Design of Tall Steel Building Frameworks

Abstract

Due to the complex nature of a modern tall building consisting of thousands of structural members, the traditional trial-and-error design method is generally highly iterative and very time-consuming. This paper presents an automatic resizing technique for the optimal design of tall steel building frameworks. Specifically, a computer-based method is developed for the minimum weight design of lateral load-resisting steel frameworks subject to multiple interstory drift and member strength and sizing constraints in accordance with building code and fabrication requirements. The most economical standard steel sections to use for the structural members are automatically selected from commercially available standard section databases. The design-optimization problem is first formulated and expressed in an explicit form and is then solved by a rigorously derived optimality criteria (OC) algorithm. A full-scale 50-story three-dimensional (3D) asymmetrical building framework example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness, efficiency, and practicality of the automatic resizing technique.