Optimum design of laterally-supported castellated beams using CBO algorithm

In this study, two common types of laterally supported castellated beams are considered as design problems: beams with hexagonal openings and beams with circular openings. The main goal of manufacturing these beams is to increase the moment of inertia and section modulus, which results in greater strength and rigidity. These types of open-web beams have found widespread use, primarily in buildings, because of great savings in materials and construction costs. Hence, the minimum cost is taken as the design objective function and the Colliding Bodies Optimization (CBO) method is utilized for obtaining the solution of the design problem. The design methods used in this study are consistent with BS5950 Part 1 and Part 3, and Euro Code 3. A number of design examples are considered to optimize by CBO algorithm. Comparison of the optimal solution of the CBO algorithm with those of the Enhanced Charged System Search (ECSS) method demonstrate the capability of CBO in solving the present type of design problem. It is also observed that optimization results obtained by the CBO algorithm for three design examples have less cost in comparison to the results of the ECSS algorithm. From the results obtained in this paper, it can be concluded that the use of beam with hexagonal opening requires smaller amount of steel material and it is superior to the cellular beam from the cost point of view.