DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXPERT SYSTEM FOR STRUCTURAL OPTIMISATION OF STEEL TRUSS-GIRDER BRIDGES UNDER MOVING LOADS

Many rail and road bridges in the mountainous regions of north east India are steel truss-girder bridges. Between 10% and 20% of these bridges are defective and need to be replaced with economic designs. This paper presents an expert system that has been developed for the optimal design of truss-girder bridges, and gives two illustrative examples of its use. It first formulates the optimisation problem, which is a mathematical programming problem of maximising or minimising an objective function of several variables, subject to several constraints. A random search technique, using several active constraints, was adopted. A software package for the expert system was developed in Fortran 77, and validated by manual calculations. It differs from conventional expert systems in several ways. It can generate optimal designs for five types of truss-girder bridges: (1) through-type Warren truss; (2) subdivided Warren truss; (3) parallel-chord Pratt truss; (4) curved chord Pratt truss; and (5) k-type trusses. It can handle various types of moving load on the bridge. The economy that can be achieved by using the software for bridge design is evaluated for two Pratt truss-girder bridges, previously designed by conventional methods.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1790571
• Corporate Authors:

  Indian Roads Congress

  Jamnagar House, Shahjahan Road
  New Delhi,   India  110 011
• Authors:
  • KAYAL, S
• Publication Date: 1996-5

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 15-28
• Serial:
  • Indian Highways
  • Volume: 24
  • Issue Number: 5
  • Publisher: Indian Roads Congress
  • ISSN: 0376-7256

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridges; Calculation; Computer programs; Costs; Design; Dynamics; Expert systems; Loads; Mathematical models; Optimization; Steel
• Uncontrolled Terms: Decreases; Optimum
• ITRD Terms: 3455: Bridge; 6464: Calculation; 224: Cost; 9009: Decrease; 9011: Design (overall design); 5473: Dynamics; 8626: Expert system; 5567: Load; 6473: Mathematical model; 8645: Software; 4542: Steel
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Finance;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00729729
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Dec 26 1996 12:00AM