SHAPE OPTIMIZATION OF GRAVITY RETAINING WALL USING PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM

Abstract

Retaining wall is a common structure in many fields such as civil, irrigation, transport, waterway constructions,... This type of structure plays an important role in keeping ground, foundation and the construction stable against sudden changes of earth elevation in front and behind the retaining wall. However, the process of calculating and determining the dimension of the retaining walls is still mainly based on experience, with high factor of safety, often leading to waste of materials and high construction costs. This article presents the application of particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) to automatically optimize the dimention of gravity retaining walls with complex cross-sections. Results applied on a real project show that the application of the optimal algorithm significantly reduces the amount of material used to make retaining walls, thereby saving construction costs.