Optimization and Artificial Intelligence in Civil and Structural Engineering Volume I: Optimization in Civil and Structural Engineering

This volume and its companion volume includes the edited versions of the principal lectures and selected papers presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Optimization and Decision Support Systems in Civil Engineering. The Institute was held in the Department of Civil Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh from June 25th to July 6th 1989 and was attended by eighty participants from Universities and Research Institutes around the world. A number of practising civil and structural engineers also attended. The lectures and papers have been divided into two volumes to reflect the dual themes of the Institute namely Optimization and Decision Support Systems in Civil Engineering. Planning for this ASI commenced in late 1986 when Andrew Templeman and I discussed developments in the use of the systems approach in civil engineering. A little later it became clear that much of this approach could be realised through the use of knowledge-based systems and artificial intelligence techniques. Both Don Grierson and John Gero indicated at an early stage how important it would be to include knowledge-based systems within the scope of the Institute. The title of the Institute could have been: 'Civil Engineering Systems' as this would have reflected the range of systems applications to civil engineering problems considered by the Institute. These volumes therefore reflect the full range of these problems including: structural analysis and design; water resources engineering; geotechnical engineering; transportation and environmental engineering.

I.- The Optimization of Civil Engineering Networks.- Fuzzy Sets Applied to Civil Engineering Systems.- Civil Engineering Optimizing and Satisficing.- Network Structuring Algorithms.- Risk Balancing Approaches.- Consistent Crudeness in System Construction.- Entropy in Civil Engineering Optimization.- An Assessment of Current Non-Linear Programming Algorithms for Structural Design Part I: Basic Algorithms.- An Assessment of Current Non-Linear Programming Algorithms for Structural Design Part II: Some Recent Approximation Methods.- Classification and Comparison of LP Formulations for the Plastic Design of Frames.- On Some Properties of Optimum Structural Topologies.- The Theorems of Structural and Geometric Variation for Engineering Structures.- Optimal Design of Large Discretized Systems by Iterative Optimality Criteria Methods.- Approximate Models for Structural Optimization.- Computer-Automated Optimal Design of Structural Steel Frameworks.- Optimal Design for Static and Dynamic Loading.- Optimal Design and Optimization of Structures.- Two-Stage Optimal Design in Concrete.- Layout Optimization in Structural Design.- Sequential Optimisation for Structural Networks and Water Supply Systems Based on Sensitivity and Reliability.- The Geometrical Analysis of Deformations Based on an Optimal Network Design and Proper Data Management Tools.- Interaction of Criteria, Accuracy and Reliability and its Implication for the Design of Engineering Survey Control Networks.- A Systems Approach to Real-Time Reservoir Operations.- Approaches to Risk Management and Operational Guidance for Municipal Water Supplies.- Optimization Modeling in Water Resources: A Sample of Applications.- Queues, Construction Operations and Optimization.- Sensitivity Analysis in Reliabilty-Based Shape Optimization.- Genetic Algorithms in Automated Structural Synthesis.