Cost optimization of composite floor trusses

The paper presents the cost optimization of composite floor trusses composed from a reinforced concrete slab of constant depth and steel trusses consisting of hot rolled channel sections. The optimization was performed by the nonlinear programming approach, NLP. Accordingly, a NLP optimization model for composite floor trusses was developed. An accurate objective function of the manufacturing material, power and labour costs was proposed to be defined for the optimization. Alongside the costs, the objective function also considers the fabrication times, and the electrical power and material consumption. Composite trusses were optimized according to Eurocode 4 for the conditions of both the ultimate and the serviceability limit states. A numerical example of the optimization of the composite truss system presented at the end of the paper demonstrates the applicability of the proposed approach.