Decision support system on IBM PC for design of economic steel structures applied to crane girders

Abstract A decision support system (DSS) was developed on a personal computer for the economic design of steel structures. The DSS contains six various-type single-criterion and seven multicriteria optimization methods. The economic design of the asymmetric main box girders of overhead travelling cranes was realized by considering four objective functions and sixteen nonlinear inequality constraints according to BS 2573 and BS 5400. Constraints on static and fatigue stress, on local buckling of flange and web plates, as well as on static deflection, are considered. Numerical computations show the effects of material, welding, surface preparation and total cost on each other. Use of higher strength steel may result in savings on the cost of materials, depending on the cost factor employed.