ABSTRACT
Steel bridges are constructed to easily pass valleys and rivers and to offer minimum hindrance to traffic flow and surrounding nature. The development of an economical and ecofriendly steel bridge structure is possible with the selection of optimum parameters such as geometric dimension, modulus of elasticity of member sections, spring stiffness, etc. Optimization approaches are utilized to get the optimum value of selected parameters of the bridge structure. This article provides a detailed overview of recent developments featured with multi-objective optimization techniques based on mathematical programming, stochastic and statistical process, gradient variation, swarm and evolution and also highlights various challenges that have to be overcome while designing efficient optimization functions and while keeping the focus on applications in steel bridges. The key issues discussed deal mainly with discontinuous multi-modal steel bridge optimization problems, the monitoring of performance and efficient selection of optimization algorithms, simultaneous multi-parameter optimization, uncertain-conditions-based optimization and examining optimization techniques while acting on complications encountered in real-world structures. Lastly, the future scope for improving application of various optimization algorithms while solving steel bridge problems is discussed.
