Optimization of the designs of earth dams

Conclusions

• 1. Optimization of designs, an increase of their reliability today, when it is possible to realize thorough calculation methods of determining the stress-strain of earth structures with more complete consideration of the actual properties of soils, is a most important technical problem. The search for the optimum is a technical and economic problem.

• 2. The successful solution of the problem of constructing various functions of performance depends on the correctness of selecting the absolute dimensions of factor space, which is achieved by a thorough analysis of the available a priori information. Extreme narrowing of factor space results in that the optimum solution falls outside the limits of factor space. It is most expedient to limit the number of factors to four or five and to use complete factorial experiments. When using fractional factorial experiment it is necessary to limit the fraction of the replicate to a half-replicate.

• 3. In the case when the Pareto set does not intersect factor space, it is necessary to search for the point on the boundary of factor space closest to the point of the global optimum. In this case the gradient, maximum descent, and other methods are used.