This paper proposes a GA-based reduced search space technique (GA-RSS) for the optimal design of steel moment frames. It tries to reduce the computation time by focusing the search around the boundaries of the constraints, using a ranking-based constraint handling to enhance the efficiency of the algorithm. This attempt to reduce the search space is due to the fact that in most optimization problems the optimal solution lies on or near the boundaries of the feasible region. All the analyses/optimization steps have been implemented in MATLAB and the method has been validated by optimizing three moment-frame benchmark problems. According to the results, the algorithm performs fit and needs relatively fewer analyses than other metaheuristic algorithms to reach a global optimum solution.

Keywords: structural optimization, steel frame structures, genetic algorithm, reduced search space, constraint handling

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