Optimum design of horizontally curved R/C slabs

A method for selecting the optimum design variables in the design of horizontally curved two-way reinforced concrete floor slabs is presented. The slab panels are assumed to be uniformly loaded by characteristic dead and live load and supported on all sides by rigid boundary supports. The optimum values are selected from within the feasible region in the design space defined by the limit state requirements of CP 110 (British Standard Code). Cost of material is treated as the objective function and is optimized subject to the bending behavior and side constraints imposed by the limit-state requirements. For the ultimate limit-state analysis, the bending moments in the curved slab panels are determined from the linear-elastic theory of sector plates. Nonlinear programming problems of high degree are generated by setting the effective depth and the transformed steel ratios as the design variables in both the objective function and the constraints. The sequential linear programming is introduced as an analytical method of nonlinear optimization. The optimum design variables are then determined.