Design optimization of non-uniform stiffened steel plate girders - A computer code

The paper presents a direct search design procedure that has been automated to obtain a minimum weight design of non-uniform stiffened steel plate girders. The direct search procedure does not require evaluation of design gradients and the search for minimum weight design is according to either the ASD or the LRFD design specifications of the American Institute of Steel Construction. An algorithm for the two design procedures is presented to facilitate a general utilization of the computer code. The comzputer code is tested by comparing results of minimum weight designs of a three-span stiffened steel plate girder to results obtained from a generalized reduced gradients algorithm. Results of the comparative design studies are summarized to (i) compare effectiveness of the procedure presented in this paper over a generalized gradient-based design procedure; (ii) illustrate the simplified input-output format of the computer code through a set of design examples; and (iii) compare designs obtained from the two design specifications implemented in the code.