Cost Optimization of Prestressed Concrete Bridges

According to the Federal Highway Administration, almost one-quarter of the more than one-half-million U.S. bridges make use of prestressed concrete beams in their designs. In this paper, a method is presented for the total cost optimization of precast, prestressed concrete I-beam bridge systems, by taking into account the costs of the prestressed concrete, deck concrete, prestressed I-beam steel, deck reinforcing steel, and formwork. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer-discrete nonlinear programming problem and solved using the robust neural dynamics model of Adeli and Park. An example is presented to demonstrate the practical application of the methodology. Typical network convergence curves using three different network starting points demonstrate the excellent convergence and the robustness of the optimization model presented in this paper.