A genetic algorithm for beam–slab layout design of rectilinear floors

A rectilinear floor is a polygonal floor all of whose edges meet at right angles. Rectilinear floors are commonly found in buildings. This study proposes a new genetic algorithm for beam–slab layout design of rectilinear floors. To begin with, a coding scheme that can efficiently represent beam–slab layouts of rectilinear floors as binary chromosome strings is developed. After that, an optimization problem representing the beam–slab layout design problem is defined. This optimization problem is then solved by a genetic algorithm specially tailored to the problem. To demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm, it is used to design beam–slab layouts of several floor plans, some of which are taken from existing buildings. The obtained results show that the beam–slab layout design task, which is highly heuristic, can be satisfactorily performed by computers.