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Optimum design of reinforced concrete retaining walls with the flower pollination algorithm

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Abstract

The flower pollination algorithm (FPA) is an efficient metaheuristic optimization algorithm mimicking the pollination process of flowering species. In this study, FPA is applied, for the first time, to the optimum design of reinforced concrete (RC) cantilever retaining walls. It is found that FPA offers important savings with respect to conventional design approaches and that it outperforms genetic algorithm (GA) and the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm in this design problem. Furthermore, parameter tuning reveals that the best FPA performance is achieved for switch probability values ranging between 0.4 and 0.7, a population size of 20 individuals and a Lévy flight step size scale factor of 0.5. Finally, parametric optimum designs show that the optimum cost of RC retaining walls increases rapidly with the wall height and smoothly with the magnitude of surcharge loading.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, City, University of London, London, UK

    Panagiotis E. Mergos & Fotios Mantoglou

  2. Research Centre for Civil Engineering Structures, City, University of London, EC1V 0HB, London, UK

    Panagiotis E. Mergos

Authors
  1. Panagiotis E. Mergos
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  2. Fotios Mantoglou
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Correspondence to Panagiotis E. Mergos.

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Responsible Editor: Mehmet Polat Saka

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Mergos, P.E., Mantoglou, F. Optimum design of reinforced concrete retaining walls with the flower pollination algorithm. Struct Multidisc Optim 61, 575–585 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00158-019-02380-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00158-019-02380-x

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