Optimization and Multihazard Structural Design

Abstract

There is a growing interest in the development of procedures for the design of structures exposed to multiple hazards. The goal is to achieve safer and/or more economical designs than would be the case if the structures were analyzed independently for each hazard and an envelope of the demands induced by each of the hazards were used for member sizing. We describe an optimization approach to multihazard design that achieves the greatest possible economy while satisfying specified safety-related and other constraints. We then present an application to illustrate our approach.