Design of concrete structures using structural optimization based on the stress field method

The Elastic Plastic Stress Field method (EPSF) is a widely used tool for design and verification of structural concrete works. EPSF uses the elastic-plastic material behavior, which allows accounting for compatibility conditions and thus provides exact solutions according to limit analysis. By applying structural optimization method on the basis of EPSF, an automatic approach for the optimal design of reinforced concrete structures is developed. Optimal design is obtained by solving a minimization problem with a number of compliance constraints. The result respects the yield conditions of both materials and the deformation capacity requirements of the structure. The efficiency of the approach is illustrated by a set of examples.