DEVELOPMENT OF AN AIDING TOOL FOR THE OPTIMAL DETAIL OF ACTIVE REINFORCEMENT USING GENETIC ALGORITHM

Resumo

The aim of this paper is to present the development of an auxiliary tool for the optimal de-
tail of active reinforcement on a prestressed concrete section. To achieve it, the methodology considers

normative requisites and the tension required at the most critical section of the beam. The problem of
optimization seeks to minimize the volume of steel while satisfying the conditions of minimum cover and

spacing between reinforcement cables. Design variables are the number of strands per cable and the po-
sition of each cable within cross section. Due to the nature of the variables and the constraints involved,

genetic algorithm seems to be the most suitable optimization procedure. Hence, the proposed methodol-
ogy is implemented using the native implementation of genetic algorithm of MATLAB, a broadly used

computer program in academy. The developed tool allows to detail different sections, since it treats the
cross section as a general polygon. Thereby, it allows exploitation of new sections for future projects,
as well as assisting in the time of design. It is worth mentioning that a complete automated prestressed
concrete executive project is still far down the road. Numerical examples are analyzed to demonstrate
the efficiency of the presented tool and to illustrate it’s usage in a actual life design process.