Optimization of Reinforced Concrete Retaining Walls Designed According to European Provisions

Abstract

Reinforced concrete retaining walls are concrete structures that are built to retain natural soil or fill earth. This study examines the lower cost-optimized design of retaining walls. Recently, a large number of modern optimization techniques were published, but a small number of them were proposed for reinforced concrete retaining walls. The proposed method develops a heuristic optimization approach to achieve the optimal design of these structures. This method simultaneously satisfies all structural, geotechnical, and European Code design restraints while decreasing the total cost of these structures. In order to confirm the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method, characteristic retaining wall examples are demonstrated. Furthermore, the parametric investigation is examined to study the result of pertinent parameters on the minimum-cost static and seismic design of retaining structures.

Keywords

• retaining walls
• European codes
• geotechnical design
• seismic safety
• heuristic optimization