Determination of Optimal Bridge Design

In bridge construction, basic structural elements are used repeatedly. Usually, designs are developed using standard guidelines and according to the preferences of the designer, but they are not necessarily the best from the viewpoint of cost. However, cost-effective designs can be produced using mathematical programming techniques. Here two typical bridge design problems are solved using GPALL (a geometric programming theory based optimization procedure). The cost for one bridge is compared with the cost of a commonly used design.