Proposal of maglev guideway girder by structural optimization: Civil works of center for urban maglev program in Korea

An optimized maglev guideway girder system which fulfills the requirements of Center for Urban Maglev Program in Korea is proposed. The design of optimized guideway girder should satisfy the design criteria regarding load conditions (vehicle load and dead load) and deflection conditions due to moving vehicle load. The design criteria have deflection regulation on live load and concrete strength condition on top and bottom ends of the girder. To satisfy these conditions, we define various design variables (DV), state variables (SV) and object function (OBJ) followed by structural optimization process leading to the dimension of the cross section of the guideway girder. General purpose finite element analysis program ANSYS was utilized to perform structural optimization and 3D analysis to check the design criteria. Accordingly proposed maglev guideway girder is compared with the guideway girder systems of the commercial and experimental routes economically and indirectly.