Determination of optimum cross-section of earth dams using ant colony optimization algorithm

Earth dams are one of the most important and expensive civil engineering structures to which a considerable amount of budget is allocated. Their construction costs mainly correspond to the size of embankments, which in turn depends on their cross-sectional area. Therefore, reductions in cross-sectional areas of earth dams may cause a decrease in embankment volumes, leading to a significant reduction in the construction costs of these structures. On the other hand, it is almost impossible to obtain optimum cross-section in earth dams with desired stability and acceptable operational dimensions using traditional design methods. In this paper, Ant Colony Optimization algorithm (ACO), a well-known and powerful metaheuristic method for tackling problems in geotechnical engineering, was used to solve this complicated problem. The results showed that applying the ideal and optimum slope and berm arrangements resulting from ACO in designing embankments and earth dams with different heights could lead to a decrease in embankment volumes, compared to those without any berms or those with berms resulting from usual designs with trial and error.