Automatic optimization of piled raft design based on branch and bound method

Summary Piled rafts are foundation systems that combine a shallow raft with the minimum number of piles beneath the raft, in order to achieve the necessary bearing capacity and the acceptable settlement restrictions. Its use is increasing in many countries, especially in skyscrapers in Europe and As...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The structural design of tall and special buildings Vol. 24; no. 5; pp. 351 - 365
Main Authors:	Sales, Maurício M., Lima, Bruno S., Almeida, Sylvia Regina M., Farias, Márcio M.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 10-04-2015 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects:	branch and bound method pile arrangement piled raft settlement
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Summary Piled rafts are foundation systems that combine a shallow raft with the minimum number of piles beneath the raft, in order to achieve the necessary bearing capacity and the acceptable settlement restrictions. Its use is increasing in many countries, especially in skyscrapers in Europe and Asia, for which the foundation design can result in hundreds of piles due to the high load magnitude. However, controlling the most influencing variables on the foundation behaviour, while achieving an acceptable cost, is a challenge for designers. This paper presents an optimization procedure to determine the best raft thickness, number of piles and their location. The branch and bound optimization method was combined with a specific computational programme for piled raft analysis (GARP) providing an automatic technique to obtain the lower cost design. A building in Brazil and theoretical examples of a piled raft with different load sets are presented and analysed using this numerical approach. The results show that the presented automatic procedure provides interesting solutions, economically enhancing the design of piled raft foundation systems. The optimization process provides arrangements using lower number of piles while satisfying the constraints in both analysed cases. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliography:	ArticleID:TAL1169 ark:/67375/WNG-ZS0F2DCM-J istex:43418FDA271B02B4AB9596495A772B10EA5ECD02
ISSN:	1541-7794 1541-7808
DOI:	10.1002/tal.1169