Reinforced concrete (RC) is widely used in building construction. Steel reinforcement design for RC frames is a necessary and important task for designing RC building structures. Currently, steel reinforcement design is performed manually or semi-automatically with the aid of computer software. These methods are error-prone, time-consuming, and sometimes resulting in over-design or under-design. In addition, clashes of steel reinforcement bars are rarely considered during the design stage and they often occur in beam-column joints on site nowadays. Additional time and manpower are often needed to resolve these clashes in an ad-hoc manner. Sometimes, it is impossible to resolve clashes without moving the steel reinforcement bars and redesigning steel reinforcement layout. Therefo...[ Read more ]

Reinforced concrete (RC) is widely used in building construction. Steel reinforcement design for RC frames is a necessary and important task for designing RC building structures. Currently, steel reinforcement design is performed manually or semi-automatically with the aid of computer software. These methods are error-prone, time-consuming, and sometimes resulting in over-design or under-design. In addition, clashes of steel reinforcement bars are rarely considered during the design stage and they often occur in beam-column joints on site nowadays. Additional time and manpower are often needed to resolve these clashes in an ad-hoc manner. Sometimes, it is impossible to resolve clashes without moving the steel reinforcement bars and redesigning steel reinforcement layout. Therefore, this research aims to develop a framework for automating the steel reinforcement design process for RC frames using the building information modelling (BIM) technology. BIM has been increasingly popular in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry for some years, but its use in structural design is still limited to extracting construction design and clash detection. However, BIM models provide much geometric and functional information and can be used for steel reinforcement optimization and clash resolution as well.

This research presents an automated steel reinforcement optimization framework with modified version (considering clash resolution) based on the BIM technology. The first framework uses information from a BIM model to intelligently suggest the number, size and arrangement of three types of steel reinforcement (i.e., tensile, compressive, and shear) with minimum steel reinforcement area. The framework uses the developed hybrid Genetic Algorithm-Hooke and Jeeves (GA-HJ) approach to optimize the steel reinforcement according to the loading conditions, end-support conditions and geometry of the RC member (RC beam or RC column). The developed GA-HJ approach increases the efficiency as well as the quality of the optimum solutions. The modified version of the framework is then developed to utilize and integrate the 3D spatial information of RC frame from a BIM model to provide clash-free and optimized steel reinforcement design. The modified framework uses a two-stage GA approach to provide clash-free, optimized, constructable, and design code compliant steel reinforcement design. Overall, the developed frameworks provide fast and error-free steel reinforcement design with the minimum area of steel reinforcement when compared with currently available steel reinforcement design approaches. In addition, the developed GA-HJ approach can be modified and used to support other building design optimization problems in future.