1 Applications of Metaheuristic Methods in Civil Engineering Problems H. Bozkurt , A. Çerçevik , Y. C. Toklu Department of Civil Engineering, Bilecik Şeyh Edebali Üniversitesi, Bilecik, Turkey, hasan.bozkurt@bilecik.edu.tr Abstract In this paper it is aimed to present a general look to meta-heuristic algorithms and their applications to civil engineering problems. Nowadays, meta-heuristics algorithms are widely used for solving problems involving optimization from almost all branches of science and engineering. Main advantages of meta-heuristics algorithms lie in their applicability to different types of problems involving those with no defined derivatives and those having constraints of all kinds. They are applicable to problems with continuous variables as well as discrete and even mixed variables. Currently there are more than 100 different meta-heuristic algorithms and their number is increasing continuously. One can add to these algorithms the hybrid ones which are created by combinations of two or more different algorithms. It can be seen in the literature that these algorithms have successfully found many application areas in all fields of civil engineering. In this paper, after giving a general outlook to the theory and properties of the meta-heuristic algorithms, examples are given related to their applications on structural, hydraulic, geotechnical, transportation engineering, construction management and construction materials, with comparisons to solutions obtained from classical methods. By doing so, it is emphasized that meta-heuristic algorithms are, most of the time, much more powerful than classical methods and they are capable of solving problems which were impossible to handle before. Keywords: Meta-heuristic algorithms, civil engineering, design, analysis, optimization 1 Introduction Engineering is known to have two main aspects, design and analysis. Engineering design can be defined as finding suitable solutions to real world problems using knowledge of science, mathematics, logic, economics, system sciences and appropriate experience. The word “suitable” in this definition can easily be replaced by “best” meaning most economical, sustainable, effective, maintainable, feasible, … i.e. optimum under given conditions of the problem. Thus it is easy to see that engineering design is very strongly tied to optimization. It goes without saying that every design problem is, in fact, an optimization problem. Some examples are named in the present paper to emphasize this aspect. On the other hand, it is shown in the scientific literature that, some analysis problems also can be formulated as optimization problems. One can easily add to engineering applications formulated as optimization problems the ones like assignment, scheduling, blending, allocation problems and the like which do not fall directly under the category of design and analysis aspects of engineering.