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The use of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) U-wrap to rehabilitate concrete beams has increased in popularity over the past few years. As such, many design codes and guidelines have been developed to enable designers to use of FRP for retrofitting reinforced concrete beams. FIB is the only guideline for design which presents a formula for torsional capacity of concrete beams strengthened with FRP. The Rackwitz-Fiessler method was applied to make a reliability assessment on the torsional capacity design of concrete beams retrofitted with U-wrap FRP laminate by this guideline. In this paper, the average of reliability index obtained is 2.92, reflecting reliability of the design procedures. This value is somehow low in comparison to target reliability level of 3.5 used in the guideline calibration and so, optimum resistance factor may be needed in future guideline revisions. From the study on the relation between average reliability index and optimum resistance factor, a value of 0.723 for the optimum resistance factor is suggested.

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In this paper, for topology optimization of double layer grids, an efficient optimization method is presented by combination of Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) and Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) which is called ICA-GSA method. The present hybrid method is based on ICA but the moving of countries toward their relevant imperialist is done using the law of gravity of GSA. In topology optimization process, the weight of the structure is minimized subjected to displacements of joints, internal stress and slenderness ratio of members constraints. Through numerical example, topology optimization of a typical large-scale double layer grid is obtained by ICA, GSA and ICA-GSA methods. The numerical results indicate that the proposed algorithm, ICA-GSA, executes better than ICA, GSA and the other methods presented in the literatures for topology optimization of largescale skeletal structures.

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Vulnerability assessment of structures encounter many uncertainties like seismic excitations intensity and response of structures. The most common approach adopted to deal with these uncertainties is vulnerability assessment through fragility functions. Fragility functions exhibit the probability of exceeding a state namely performance-level as a function of seismic intensity. A common approach is finding some response points of the fragility function and then fitting a typical probability distribution like lognormal through curve fitting estimation techniques. Maximum-likelihood approach is a fitting method to find the probability distribution parameters. Performing this approach for distributions like lognormal which is defined by just two parameters are straight forward while for more complicated distribution which are based on additional characterizing parameters is not feasible, since this approach is based on minimizing an error function through classic mathematical approaches like calculating partial derivations. An applicable modification is to add an efficient optimization approach to determine maximum-likelihood function. In this article, an optimization algorithm is proposed with maximum-likelihood-estimation and the results indicate the efficiency and feasibility of future developments in finding the most appropriate fragility function.

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This paper illustrates an optimization procedure of concrete beam-column joints subjected to shear that are strengthened with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP). For this aim, five different values have been considered for length, width and thickness of the FRP sheets which created 125 different models to strengthen of concrete beam-column joints. However, by using response surface methodology (RSM) in design expert software the number of these models is reduced to 20. Then, each of 20 models is simulated in ABAQUS finite element software and shear capacity is also determined. The relationship between different dimensions of the FRP sheets and shear capacity are specified by using RSM. Furthermore the optimum dimensions are determined by particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm.

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Selecting an appropriate flooring system is essential for structures. Flooring system design has traditionally focused on weight loss and minimizing costs. However, in recent years, the focus of this sector has changed to include improving the environmental performance of building materials and construction systems. This paper illustrates a knowledge-based expert system as a tool to assess of flooring systems such as block joisted (BJ), steel-concrete composite (SCC), composite steel deck (CSD) and concrete slab (CS) based on sustainability criteria that are further divided into twenty sub-criteria. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is utilized as a multi-criteria decision making technique that helps to compute weights and rankings of sustainability criteria. For this purpose, some questionnaires completed by construction industry experts in order to compare criterions and sub-criteria in addition to assessment of optimized flooring systems. Then, results of the questionnaires are ranked by AHP and the most significant alternative is selected. The AHP results indicate that CSD system 47.9%, CS; 29.8%, SCC; 12.7% and BJ system 9.6% are the most and the least efficient systems, respectively.