Optimization of the sustainability profit generated by the production of beams

Abstract

The paper presents the optimization of the sustainability profit generated by the production of simply supported beams in the area of civil engineering. A number of beams are proposed to be designed from three different material alternatives: from the structural steel, from the reinforced concrete and from the laminated timber. For this reason, three optimization models of beams are developed for the three materials. In addition, two different objectives are defined for each different material alternative: for the economic profit and for the sustainability profit (which includes eco costs of the global warming). The proposed objective functions are subjected to the design, resistance and deflection constraints of the beams, determined in accordance with Eurocode 2, 3 and 5 specifications. The optimizations of the beam alternatives are performed by the mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) approach. GAMS/Dicopt is used. The task of the optimization is to find the most advantageous material alternative for the beams. The numerical example, presented at the end of the paper, clearly shows that the reinforced concrete beams exhibit the highest economic profit, but the timber beams give the highest sustainability profit.