Trker, Temel; Dede, Tayfun; Yanik, Yusuf; Yildirim, Omer

Nowadays, different structural members can be used in structures. The mechanical properties of the materials are variable. For this reason, it is very important to identify the material properties correctly. The main parameter used to define the material properties is the elasticity modulus. In this study, the elasticity modulus of structural members was determined by Model Calibration Method using dynamic characteristics obtained from Ambient Vibration Test data. The application of the proposed method was presented on a steel structure member. First of all, experimental natural frequencies were obtained by conducting Environmental Vibration Test on the selected model. A measurement system consisting of accelerometers for experimental measurements and an electronic circuit used as signal collection unit are designed. The data obtained from this measurement system were transferred to the computer environment and analyzed in the Matlab program. Using the SAP2000 package program, the theoretical natural frequencies were found by Finite Element Method. The difference between the experimental and theoretical results was reduced to the lowest as a result of repeated analysis by modifying the elasticity modulus in the Finite Element model created in SAP2000 program via software generated in Matlab. The calibrated finite element model and the elasticity modulus of the steel structural member are determined by the process.

Dede, Tayfun; Bekiroglu, Serkan; Ayvaz, Yusuf

This study is concerned with encoding types such as value encoding and binary encoding for continuous and discrete optimization with a GA, which is coded in FORTRAN and considers stress and displacement constraints, in view of weight minimization of truss structures. Moreover, when continuous optimization is performed, the challenge of huge search space due to the effort of considering continuous set of design variables is overcame by a mechanism introduced as restricted range approach (RRA) in this study. In comparison with the literature, it is concluded that the program developed in this study can be effectively used in the weight minimization of truss structures. It is also came to the conclusion that value encoding overcomes the adverse effects of Hamming-cliff, and that value encoding requires less computer memory and time, never destroys the fit chromosome. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bekiroǧlu, Serkan; Dede, Tayfun; Ayvaz, Yusuf

In this study, the use of new alternatives of encoding types such as quaternary encoding and octal encoding is reviewed along with that of binary and value encodings and how they provide contribution to efficiency and robustness of genetic algorithm is discussed in structural problems. In addition to new alternatives of encoding types, a genetic algorithm with adaptive manner is presented so that an adaptive approach including adaptive mutation and adaptive crossover operators is employed. It is concluded that it is not possible to tell that one of the encoding types is exactly dominant over the others in all aspects such as convergence, finding the optimum solution, and iteration number. However, it is worth to say that to run genetic process with different encoding types should be considered since one of the runs can give more appropriate solution than that of the others.