Recent Developments of an Optimisation Procedure for Seismic Retrofit of RC Frames

The spirit of the ecological transition applied to seismically deficient structures should inspire the development of simple methods capable of identify the “optimal” retrofitting solution (with reference to some predefined criteria). In order to support the intervention choice, an “objective” approach could be implemented making use of recently-invented Artificial Intelligence (AI) procedures. Specifically, the application of Genetic Algorithms (GAs) is usually thought as a suitable way in civil engineering optimization problems. In the present paper, a parametric study on a RC structure based on a GA procedure is reported. Consequently, the design of retrofit interventions results to be based on one objective criterion related to their cost-effectiveness, rather than on the highly subjective “engineering judgement”. Moreover, the adoption of GAs enables to set more than one optimization criteria, in order to achieve not only strictly economic objectives, but also relevant targets intended to make seismic retroftting or upgrading interventions more sustainable.