| Abstract: | The optimal design of the members of conventional structures or structures equipped with active bracing systems, known as active structures, is presented for uncertain excitations. Three approaches are used for obtaining the optimal structural design: (1) the time-history analysis of an actual earthquake record (AR), (2) the global energy-bound convex model adjusted with an excitation-specific reduction factor (RGEB), and (3) the global energy-bound convex model adjusted with an average reduction factor (ARGEB) for a set of excitations with common characteristics. The optimal structures obtained using the RGEB and ARGEB convex models have different sizes for their conventional members from the designs based on a time-history analysis of the actual earthquake (AR). The optimal design of the structure is carried out using a modified annealing algorithm. The advantage of using convex models to perform the optimization is that they represent a more general excitation than a single earthquake record. In addition, the RGEB and ARGEB convex models require considerably less computational effort since the constraints of the optimization become time-independent. A comparison between optimal designs of structures with conventional members only, and active structures indicates that the latter are more efficient by combining the conventional and active members. |
