Optimum Design of Trapezoidal Combined Footings

Abstract

This study is an application of one of the non-linear programming methods ; Hooke & Jeeves method to the structural design of the trapezoidal combined footings , considering the total cost of the footing as an objective function . The cost function was formulated in terms of the following design variables : Smaller and larger footing width, footing width, thickness, depth of embedment and left and right projections A computer program was developed to solve this design problem using the conventional structural design approach in conjunction with Hooke & Jeeves method. A simple study was performed to detect the sensitivity of the objective function to its design variables.A further parametric study was performed regarding the distance between columns and loading conditions. It has been proved that the minimum cost of the trapezoidal combined footing increases with the increase of the distance between columns and loading ratio.

Keywords

• Combined Footings
• Optimum Design
• Trapezoidal