The Most Applicable Meta-Heuristic Optimisation Methods on Concrete Structures

Optimisation has attracted the attention of human since ancient times, during which the activities were inconsiderable and resources were unlimited. Extension of activities and their cost, time and resources limitations have caused researchers pay their attention to optimising the activities. Optimum alternative should be feasible, economical, functional and effective as possible. Structural optimisation is the technical term for the application of optimisation on structures. The last decades have seen a rapid development in optimisation techniques to solve related problems in structural design. However, recent surveys have shown insufficient penetration of optimisation methods in concrete structures. Due to the complexities of the design and construction of structures, optimisation techniques faced serious obstacles until the modern (meta-heuristic) methods of optimisation were developed. Applying such methods became quite widespread in various problems, including those of concrete structures, the optimisation of which were highly problematic and sometimes impossible before the introduction of these methods. The goal of concrete structure optimisation is often the minimization of the costs including the costs of concrete material, reinforcing bars, formwork, and pre-stressed cables. In a limited number of cases, the geometry and shape of structures were optimised. In this paper, an updated and extensive literature review is presented and due to the wide variety of meta-heuristic algorithms, appropriate concrete structure optimisation algorithms for practical practitioner are addressed. This research illustrated shortage of the concrete structure optimisation cases, researches and required direction of future studies in this regards.