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The optimization of industrial processes is a critical task for leveraging profitability and sustainability. To ensure the selection of optimum process parameter levels in any industrial process, numerous metaheuristic algorithms have been proposed so far. However, many algorithms are either computationally too expensive or become trapped in the pit of local optima. To counter these challenges, in this paper, a hybrid metaheuristic called PSO-GSA is employed that works by combining the iterative improvement capability of particle swarm optimization (PSO) and gravitational search algorithm (GSA). A binary PSO is also fused with GSA to develop a BPSO-GSA algorithm. Both the hybrid algorithms i.e., PSO-GSA and BPSO-GSA, are compared against traditional algorithms, such as tabu search (TS), genetic algorithm (GA), differential evolution (DE), GSA and PSO algorithms. Moreover, another popular hybrid algorithm DE-GA is also used for comparison. Since earlier works have already studied the performance of these algorithms on mathematical benchmark functions, in this paper, two real-world-applicable independent case studies on biodiesel production are considered. Based on the extensive comparisons, significantly better solutions are observed in the PSO-GSA algorithm as compared to the traditional algorithms. The outcomes of this work will be beneficial to similar studies that rely on polynomial models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the robotic engineering field, the main target, especially in industry, manufacturing, and surgical operations, is reaching the optimal performance of manipulators. The purpose of this paper is to quantify the contour tracking performance of collaborative universal manipulator robot (UR5) by setting the gain of position domain controller. In order to improve and enhance the track of manipulator in experimental applications we utilize differential evolution (DE) optimization, using MATLAB toolbox with an applied robot operating system (ROS). The adopted current approach does not only optimize the gain of position domain controller but also prevent collisions by detecting a "border crossing" without turning off the manipulator and allowing the automation agent to be on the scene, coexisting in harmonic mode and avoiding collisions. This requires the implementation of an algorithm that detects an obstacle to avoid anticipated collisions. For this purpose, the adopted algorithm uses the DE algorithm to modify the artificial potential field (APF). The results of this paper present that on one hand, meta-heuristic optimization algorithm features give the best performance indices for linear and non-linear contours, and on the other hand, DE algorithm features give good modification to APF to generate collision free contour path planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, six metaheuristic algorithms, in the form of artificial bee colony optimization, ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization, differential evolution, firefly algorithm and teaching-learning-based optimization techniques are applied for parametric optimization of a multi-pass face milling process. Using those algorithms, the optimal values of cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut for both roughing and finishing operations are determined for having minimum total production time and total production cost. It is observed that the teaching-learning-based optimization algorithm outperforms the others with respect to accuracy and consistency of the derived solutions as well as computational speed. Two statistical tests, i.e. paired t-test and Wilcoxson signed rank test also confirm its superiority over the remaining algorithms. Finally, these metaheuristics are employed for multi-objective optimization of the considered multi-pass milling process while concurrently minimizing both the objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The soil water retention curve (SWRC) has a significant role in determining the unsaturated properties of soil. A stochastic optimisation algorithm named Rao-1 algorithm is employed to estimate the parameters of the SWRC model in this paper. The Rao-1 algorithm is a simple heuristic search algorithm containing only addition and multiplication operations. This paper introduces the method and its application in determining soil water retention this model parameters in detail. In this study, the van Genuchten model is used to depict the SWRC for its good fitting capacity, and the van Genuchten model parameters are determined using Rao-1 algorithm. The feasibility and efficiency of the proposed method are validated via the experimental results of 24 soil samples of 12 soil textural classes. Besides, the performance of Rao-1 algorithm is compared with that of salp swarm algorithm, the particle swarm optimization algorithm, differential evolution algorithm, and RETC program. Through comparative analysis, Rao-1 algorithm outperforms other methods in determining SWRC parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jaya algorithm is a newly developed metahueristics algorithm to solve optimization problems. In this paper we have proposed a new variant named MRL-Jaya which is a fusion of Jaya algorithms with modified random localization based DE (MRLDE) algorithm. MRLJaya connects two algorithms by a systematic approach to utilize the advantage of both in a single variant. MRL-Jaya has tested on 13 traditional and 6 shifted benchmark problems taken from literature. In last the result and comparison shows the efficiency of proposed variant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper designed an advanced hybrid algorithm (haDEPSO) to solve the optimization problems, based on multi-population approach. It integrated with suggested advanced DE (aDE) and PSO (aPSO). Where in aDE a novel mutation strategy and crossover probability along with the slightly changed selection scheme are introduced, to avoid premature convergence. And aPSO consists of the novel gradually varying inertia weight and acceleration coefficient parameters, to escape stagnation. So, convergence characteristic of aDE and aPSO provides different approximation to the solution space. Thus, haDEPSO achieve better solutions due to integrating merits of aDE and aPSO. Also in haDEPSO individual population is merged with other in a pre-defined manner, to balance between global and local search capability. The algorithms efficiency is verified through 23 basic, 30 CEC 2014 and 30 CEC 2017 test suite and comparing the results with various state-of-the-art algorithms. The numerical, statistical and graphical analysis shows the effectiveness of these algorithms in terms of accuracy and convergence speed. Finally, three real world problems have been solved to confirm problem-solving capability of proposed algorithms. All these analyses confirm the superiority of the proposed algorithms over the compared algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a textile mill, ring and rotor spinning processes are the main technologies employed to convert cotton fibres into yarns with desirable qualities. It has been observed that in order to produce yarns having satisfactory quality characteristics, those spinning processes need to be run while setting different input variables (control parameters) at their optimal operating levels. In this paper, the optimal parametric combinations of back and front zone variables in a ring frame, and input variables in a rotor spinning process are determined based on teaching-learning-based optimization algorithm. The optimization performance of this algorithm is also compared with four other techniques, e.g., firefly algorithm, differential evolution algorithm, cuckoo search algorithm and quantum particle swarm optimization algorithm with respect to accuracy and consistency of the derived solutions. This optimization technique can thus be effectively applied to any of the intermediate processes in a textile mill to obtain the best combinations of different input variables so as to achieve the target quality characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new comprehensive learning gravitational search algorithm (CLGSA) is proposed to enhance the performance of basic GSA. The proposed algorithm is a new kind of intelligent optimization algorithm which has better ability to choose good elements. An intensive comprehensive learning methodology is proposed to enrich the optimization ability of the GSA. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm was evaluated by 28 benchmark functions which have been proposed in IEEE-CEC 2013 sessions. The results are compared with eight state-of-the-art algorithms IPOP, BIPOP, NIPOP, NBIPOP, DE/rand, SPSRDEMMS, SPSO-2011 and GSA. A variety of ways are considered to examine the ability of the proposed technique in terms of convergence ability, success rate and statistical behavior of algorithm over dimensions 10, 30 and 50. Apart from experimental studies, theoretical stability of the proposed CLGSA is also proved. It was concluded that the proposed algorithm performed efficiently with good results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a coupled self-adaptive multiobjective differential evolution and network flow algorithm for the optimal operation of complex multipurpose reservoir systems. The developed algorithm (i.e., self-adaptive multiobjective differential evolution) is compared to nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II using a set of common test problems and a real-world case study. An out-of- kilter method for minimal-cost flow problems is used to optimize the water resource system from self-adaptive multiobjective differential evolution inputs driven by the evolutionary process. Self-adaptive multiobjective differential evolution is then used to evaluate objective functions based on the outputs from out-of-kilter algorithm and the process continues until the stop criterion is met. The advantages of the proposed approach include (1) flexible evolutionary algorithms for solving highly complex objective function, and (2) efficient network flow method for dealing with large and highly constrained problems. The case study includes one part of a complex water supply system located in southwestern Brazil that provides water for almost 20 million people in Sao Paulo metropolitan area. The objectives of the case study include minimization of demand shortage (the difference between demand for water and available water supply), maximization of water quality (or minimization of the deviation from the water quality standards), and minimization of pumping cost. The coupled model is applied to the case study using one inflow scenario representing a drought period with inflows below historical average. Multiobjective analyses are performed by comparing two pairs of objective functions, as follows: (1) minimization of demand shortage versus minimization of pumping cost, and (2) minimization of demand shortage versus minimization of the deviation from the water quality standards. The problem constraints include reservoir capacity, capacity of tunnels, channel flow limitations, and minimum downstream release for all reservoirs within the system. The proposed coupled model (self-adaptive multiobjective differential evolution and out-of-kilter) is outperforming both pure self-adaptive multiobjective differential evolution and nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II, as it requires significantly smaller number of generations to derive the Pareto front. In addition, the proposed approach is capable of handling larger problems without major computational burden. The coupled model and self-adaptive multiobjective differential evolution also converge closer to, and provide better coverage of the true Pareto front than, nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new color watermarking algorithm based on differential evolution is proposed. A color host image is first converted from RGB space to YIQ space, which is more suitable for the human visual system. Then, apply three-level discrete wavelet transformation to luminance component Y and generate four different frequency sub-bands. After that, perform singular value decomposition on these sub-bands. In the watermark embedding process, apply discrete wavelet transformation to a watermark image after the scrambling encryption processing. Our new algorithm uses differential evolution algorithm with adaptive optimization to choose the right scaling factors. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has a better performance in terms of invisibility and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differential evolution, one of the most powerful nature inspired algorithm is used to solve the real world problems. This algorithm takes minimum number of function evaluations to reach near to global optimum solution. Although its performance is very good, yet it suffers from the problem of stagnation. In this paper, some new mutation strategies are proposed to improve the performance of differential evolution (DE). The proposed method adds one more vector named as Homeostasis mutation vector in the existing mutation vectors to provide more bandwidth for selecting effective mutant solutions. The proposed approach provides more promising solutions to guide the evolution and helpsDEescaping the situation of stagnation. Performance of proposed algorithm is compared with other state-of-the-art algorithms on COCO (Comparing Continuous Optimizers) framework. The result verifies that our proposed Homeostasis mutation strategy outperform most of the state-of-the-art DE variants and other state-of-the-art population based optimization algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differential evolution algorithm has been widely applied on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) path planning. At present, four random tuning parameters exist for differential evolution algorithm, namely, population size, differential weight, crossover, and generation number. These tuning parameters are required, together with user setting on path and computational cost weightage. However, the optimum settings of these tuning parameters vary according to application. Instead of trial and error, this paper presents an optimization method of differential evolution algorithm for tuning the parameters of UAV path planning. The parameters that this research focuses on are population size, differential weight, crossover, and generation number. The developed algorithm enables the user to simply define the weightage desired between the path and computational cost to converge with the minimum generation required based on user requirement. In conclusion, the proposed optimization of tuning parameters in differential evolution algorithm for UAV path planning expedites and improves the final output path and computational cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The joint base matrix ${{{{B}}_{{\mathrm{J}}}}}$ of the joint source-channel coding (JSCC) system based on double protograph low-density parity-check (DP-LDPC) codes consists of four components, namely, the source code ${{{{B}}_{{\mathrm{s}}}}}$ , the channel code ${{{{B}}_{{\mathrm{c}}}}}$ , the type-1 connection edge ${{{{B}}_{{ \textit {L1}}}}}$ and the type-2 connection edge ${{{{B}}_{{ \textit {L2}}}}}$ , each having a non-negligible influence on the system performance. Different from the traditional component-specific design approach, we propose a joint design and optimization algorithm based on the idea of multi-objective differential evolution (MODE). Specifically, we consider the optimization of the DP-LDPC JSCC system through joint design of three components ${{{{B}}_{{\mathrm{s}}}}}$ , ${{{{B}}_{{\mathrm{c}}}}}$ , ${{{{B}}_{{ \textit {L1}}}}}$ and all four components ${{{{B}}_{{\mathrm{s}}}}}$ , ${{{{B}}_{{\mathrm{c}}}}}$ , ${{{\mathbf{B}}_{{ \textit {L1}}}}}$ , ${{{{B}}_{{ \textit {L2}}}}}$ , respectively. The proposed algorithm has low search complexity due to the reduction in size and element value of base matrices. The joint protograph extrinsic information transfer (JPEXIT) analyses and the simulation results demonstrate that the resulting JSCC system is free from a high error floor, requires fewer number of iterations for reaching the same bit error rate (BER) and achieves significant coding gains as compared to the state-of-the-art. Our DP-LDPC JSCC system is also shown to outperform its separation-based counterpart by a wide margin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel hybrid algorithm based on artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm and differential evolution (DE) algorithm called ABC-DE is proposed to inherit their advantages and overcome their drawbacks. In ABC-DE algorithm, employed bees employ the mutation and crossover strategies of DE to enforce their exploration ability while onlooker bees keep their original updating strategy to retain the exploitation ability. Classical test functions have been provided to testify the ABC-DE algorithm. Furthermore, ABC-DE is applied to different types of time-modulated arrays (TMAs) pattern synthesis problems, including the syntheses of low equal-ripple sidelobe level (SLL) pattern, deep null level pattern, multiple-beams patterns and satellite footprint pattern. Experiment results reveal that ABC-DE has a promising performance in the convergence rate and the exploration ability when compared with other improved evolutionary algorithms, which indicates that the proposed algorithm can be an effective approach for TMAs synthesis problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Differential evolution (DE) is one of the most powerful stochastic real parameter optimizers of current interest. In this paper, we propose a new mutation strategy, a fitness-induced parent selection scheme for the binomial crossover of DE, and a simple but effective scheme of adapting two of its most important control parameters with an objective of achieving improved performance. The new mutation operator, which we call DE/current-to-gr_best/1, is a variant of the classical DE/current-to-best/1 scheme. It uses the best of a group (whose size is q\% of the population size) of randomly selected solutions from current generation to perturb the parent (target) vector, unlike DE/current-to-best/1 that always picks the best vector of the entire population to perturb the target vector. In our modified framework of recombination, a biased parent selection scheme has been incorporated by letting each mutant undergo the usual binomial crossover with one of the p top-ranked individuals from the current population and not with the target vector with the same index as used in all variants of DE. A DE variant obtained by integrating the proposed mutation, crossover, and parameter adaptation strategies with the classical DE framework (developed in 1995) is compared with two classical and four state-of-the-art adaptive DE variants over 25 standard numerical benchmarks taken from the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation 2005 competition and special session on real parameter optimization. Our comparative study indicates that the proposed schemes improve the performance of DE by a large magnitude such that it becomes capable of enjoying statistical superiority over the state-of-the-art DE variants for a wide variety of test problems. Finally, we experimentally demonstrate that, if one or more of our proposed strategies are integrated with existing powerful DE variants such as jDE and JADE, their performances can also be enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the parameter determination procedure of a gas-discharge arrester's (GDA) model. As the accuracy of the model depends on its parameters, the goal of this procedure is to determine adequate parameter values so that the model's performances match the real device behavior as much as possible. In order to achieve this goal, differential evolution (DE), a stochastic optimization algorithm, is included in the determination process. The main task of the DE algorithm is to vary the model's parameters during the optimization process, thus minimizing the difference between the measured and model-calculated current and voltage time behavior. An accurate GDA model has been obtained on the basis of measurements on a single GDA test object. This model is relevant and suitable for a series of GDA devices as the agreement between their measured and model-calculated voltage and current time behavior is excellent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new hybrid global optimization method referred to as DESA. The algorithm exploits random sampling and the metropolis criterion from simulated annealing to perform global search. The population of points and efficient search strategy of differential evolution are used to speed up the convergence. The algorithm is easy to implement and has only a few parameters. The theoretical global convergence is established for the hybrid method. Numerical experiments on 23 mathematical test functions have shown promising results. The method was also integrated into SPICE OPUS circuit simulator to evaluate its practical applicability in the area of analog integrated circuit sizing. Comparison was made with basic simulated annealing, differential evolution, and a multistart version of the constrained simplex method. The latter was already a part of SPICE OPUS and produced good results in past research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, a number of differential evolution (DE) algorithms have been proposed with excellent performance on mathematical benchmarks. However, like any other optimization algorithm, the success of DE is highly dependent on the search operators and control parameters that are often decided a priori. The selection of the parameter values is itself a combinatorial optimization problem. Although a considerable number of investigations have been conducted with regards to parameter selection, it is known to be a tedious task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparison between new approaches introducing different chaotic maps with ergodicity, irregularity, and the stochastic property in Differential Evolution algorithm (DE). The members of the new family so-called Chaotic Differential Evolution (CDE) algorithms employ chaos in order to improve the global convergence by escaping the local solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many chaotic dynamical systems can produce time series with a wide range of temporal and spectral properties as a function of only a few fixed parameters. This malleability invites their use as tools for shaping or designing inputs used to drive a separate dynamical system of interest. By specifying an objective function and employing an evolutionary algorithm to manipulate the parameters governing the dynamics of the forcing system, the output of the driven system is made to approach an optimal response subject to desired constraints. The technique's versatility is demonstrated for two different applications: damage detection in structures and phase-locked loop disruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is always desirable to keep the number of components in compositional simulation low due to the high CPU time and storage space requirement; on the other hand, the model's accuracy in describing the phase behavior decreases with reducing the number of components. As a result, an optimal lumping approach is needed to group the components to attain high accuracy in the least amount of time. This paper's main objective is to find the best lumping scheme to maintain the split model's accuracy and reach an optimal lumped model in the least amount of time. In accordance with this purpose, five different evolutionary-based metaheuristic optimization algorithms known as genetic algorithm (GA), differential evolution (DE), harmony search (HS), imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA), and shuffled-frog leaping algorithm (SFLA) are incorporated into the objective function developed to cluster heavy fractions using the k-means algorithm. To find the optimal algorithm, the best cost of the objective function and the number of function evaluations (NFE) have been compared, and the final results were substantiated using flash calculation outputs, such as density, viscosity, phase diagram, and Wilson plot. The results indicate that the proposed algorithms are capable of finding the optimal lumped model with high accuracy for all reservoir samples tested in this study. This study also marked ICA as the best evolutionary-based optimization algorithm that can be used in clustering problems. • Clustering approach using Evolutionary-based algorithms to lump heavy-end component. • The order of algorithms efficiency to lump is ICA > SFLA > GA ≈ DE ≫ HS. • ICA and SFLA attain the best cost in the lowest number of function evaluation. • The efficiency of ICA does not reduce with the increase in the number of components. • 16 components are adequate enough to present ICA-16 as the optimum lumping strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In recent years, evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are gaining popularity for finding the optimal solution of non-linear multimodal problems encountered in many engineering disciplines. Differential evolution (DE), one of the evolutionary algorithms, is a novel optimization method capable of handling nondifferentiable, non-linear and multimodal objective functions. Previous studies have shown that differential evolution is an efficient, effective and robust evolutionary optimization method. Still, DE takes large computational time for optimizing the computationally expensive objective functions. And therefore, an attempt to speed up DE is considered necessary. This paper introduces a modification to original DE that enhances the convergence rate without compromising on solution quality. Our modified differential evolution (MDE) algorithm utilizes only one set of population as against two sets in original DE at any given point of time in a generation. Such an improvement reduces the memory and computational efforts. The proposed MDE is applied to benchmark test functions and five non-linear chemical engineering problems. Results obtained are compared with those obtained using DE by considering the convergence history (CPU time and the number of runs converged to global optimum) and the established statistical techniques, taking into account the variability in the results, such as t-test. As compared to DE, MDE is found to perform better in locating the global optimal solution for all the problems considered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, a novel algorithm is proposed for solving multiobjective optimization problems. The proposed algorithm, multiobjective differential evolution (MODE), is applied to optimize industrial adiabatic styrene reactor considering productivity, selectivity and yield as the main objectives. Five combinations of the objectives are considered. Pareto set (a set of equally good solutions) obtained for all the cases is compared with results reported using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA). The results show that all objectives besides profit can be improved compared to those reported using NSGA and current operating conditions. The Pareto optimal front provides wide-ranging optimal operating conditions and an appropriate operating point can be selected based on the requirements of the user. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) is a family of population-based nature optimization methods. In contrast to classical optimization techniques, EAs provide a set of approximated solutions for different test suites of optimization and real-world problems in single simulation. In the last few years, hybrid EAs have received much attention by utilizing the valuable aspects of different nature of search strategies. Hybrid EAs are quite efficient in handling various optimization and search problems having had high complexity, noisy environment, imprecision, uncertainty and vagueness. In this article, a hybrid differential evolutionary strawberry algorithm (HDEA) is suggested to utilize the propagating behavior of the strawberry plant and perturbation process of differential evolution (DE) algorithm in order to evolve their population set of solutions. The proposed algorithm employs DE as a substitute while replacing the runners of the strawberry plant to effectively explore and exploit the search space of the problem at hand. The numerical results found by the proposed algorithm over most benchmark functions after extensive experiments are much promising in terms of proximity and diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To promote research on dynamic constrained multiobjective optimization, we first propose a group of generic test problems with challenging characteristics, including different modes of the true Pareto front (e.g., convexity–concavity and connectedness–disconnectedness) and the changing feasible region. Subsequently, motivated by the challenges presented by dynamism and constraints, we design a dynamic constrained multiobjective optimization algorithm with a nondominated solution selection operator, a mating selection strategy, a population selection operator, a change detection method, and a change response strategy. The designed nondominated solution selection operator can obtain a nondominated population with diversity when the environment changes. The mating selection strategy and population selection operator can adaptively handle infeasible solutions. If a change is detected, the proposed change response strategy reuses some portion of the old solutions in combination with randomly generated solutions to reinitialize the population, and a steady-state update method is designed to improve the retained previous solutions. The experimental results show that the proposed test problems can be used to clearly distinguish the performance of algorithms, and that the proposed algorithm is very competitive for solving dynamic constrained multiobjective optimization problems in comparison with state-of-the-art algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monarch butterfly optimization algorithm (MBO) has recently been proposed as a robust metaheuristic optimization algorithm for solving numerical global optimization problems. To enhance the performance of MBO algorithm, harmony search (HS) is introduced as a mutation operator during the adjusting operator of MBO. A novel hybrid metaheuristic optimization method, the so-called HMBO, is introduced to find the best solution for the global optimization problems. HMBO combines HS exploration with MBO exploitation, and therefore, it produces potential candidate solutions. The implementation process for enhancing MBO method is also presented. To evaluate the effectiveness of this improvement, fourteen standard benchmark functions are used. The mean and the best performance of these benchmark functions in 20, 50, and 100 dimensions demonstrated that HMBO often performs better than the original MBO and other population-based optimization algorithms such as ACO, BBO, DE, ES, GAPBIL, PSO and SGA. Moreover, the t-test result proved that the performance differences between the enhanced HMBO and the original MBO as well as the other optimization methods are statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential evolution (DE) algorithms have been successfully used to handle a wide range of water resource optimization problems in recent years. The relative performance of various DE variants has been typically assessed based on the quality of the final solutions for the selected problems within the given computational budget. Such a comparative analysis, however, provides limited under- standing on how various operational mechanisms alter the DE algorithms' searching behavior and what searching properties lead to improved performance. To improve research in this area, this study aims to characterize and compare the searching behavior of four DE variants using a range of measure metrics, mainly focusing on real-time statistics of the algorithm's search quality, search progress, and convergence manner. The utility of the metrics is demonstrated using the four DE variants (SDE, dDE, MdDE, and SADE) applied to three water distribution network (WDN) design problems with significantly increased complexity (scales). The behavioral results offer an appreciably improved understanding of the searching characteristics associated with each DE variant, thereby providing guidance for choosing the most suitable DE algorithm to solve a particular WDN optimization problem as well as offering knowledge to develop new advanced algorithms. For real- world problems, the SDE algorithm is more suitable if a limited computational budget is allowed, whereas the SADE and MdDE variants are respectively more appealing when moderate and large computational budgets are available. A new solution with a cost of $12.62 million for the large-scale problem (1,278 decision variables) is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten stochastic optimization methods-adaptive simulated annealing (ASA), covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMAES), cuckoo search (CS), dynamically dimensioned search (DDS), differential evolution (DE), genetic algorithm (GA), harmony search (HS), pattern search (PS), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and shuffled complex evolution-University of Arizona (SCE-UA)-were used to calibrate parameter sets for three hydrological models on 10 different basins. Optimization algorithm performance was compared for each of the available basin-model combinations. For each model-basin pair, 40 calibrations were run with the 10 algorithms. Results were tested for statistical significance using a multicomparison procedure based on Friedman and Kruskal-Wallis tests. A dispersion metric was used to evaluate the fitness landscape underlying the structure on each test case. The trials revealed that the dimensionality and general fitness landscape characteristics of the model calibration problem are important when considering the use of an automatic optimization method. The ASA, CMAES, and DDS algorithms were either as good as or better than the other methods for finding the lowest minimum, with ASA being consistently among the best. The SCE-UA method performs better when the model complexity is reduced, whereas the opposite is true for DDS. Convergence speed was also studied, and the same three methods (CMAES, DDS, and ASA) were shown to converge faster than the other methods. The SCE-UA method converged nearly as fast as the best methods when the model with the smallest parameter space was used but was not as worthy in the higher-dimension parameter space of the other models. Convergence speed has little impact on algorithm efficiency. The methods offering the worst performance were DE, CS, GA, HS, and PSO, although they did manage to find good local minima in some trials. However, the other available methods generally outperformed these algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Because of sheer large numbers of shell and tube heat exchanger in any chemical process industry, small improvement in their design strategies offers big saving opportunities. Traditional design approaches are based on iterative procedures that gradually change the design and geometric parameters until given heat duty and set of geometric and operational constraints are satisfied. Although well proven, this kind of approach is time consuming and may not explore the feasible solution space fully. The present study explores the use of non-traditional optimization technique called hybrid differential evolution and ant colony optimization technique, for design optimization of shell and tube heat exchangers from economic point of view. The optimization procedure involves the selection of the major geometric parameters such as tube diameters, tube length, baffle spacing, number of tube passes, tube layout, type of head, baffle cut, and so on, and minimization of total annual cost is considered as design target. The methodology takes into account the geometric and operational constraints typically recommended by design codes. Three different case studies are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of proposed algorithm. The hybrid differential evolution and ant colony optimization method lead to a design of a heat exchanger with a reduced cost of heat exchanger as compare to cost obtained by previously reported genetic algorithms approach. © 2013 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential evolution (DE) is a relatively new technique that has recently been used to optimize the design for water distribution systems (WDSs). Several parameters need to be determined in the use of DE, including population size, ; mutation weighting factor, ; crossover rate, , and a particular mutation strategy. It has been demonstrated that the search behavior of DE is especially sensitive to the and values. These parameters need to be fine-tuned for different optimization problems because they are generally problem-dependent. A self-adaptive differential evolution (SADE) algorithm is proposed to optimize the design of WDSs. Three new contributions are included in the proposed SADE algorithm: (1) instead of pre-specification, the control parameters of and are encoded into the chromosome of the SADE algorithm, and hence are adapted by means of evolution; (2) and values of the SADE algorithm apply at the individual level rather than the generational level normally used by the traditional DE algorithm; and (3) a new convergence criterion is proposed for the SADE algorithm as the termination condition, thereby avoiding pre-specifying a fixed number of generations or computational budget to terminate the evolution. Four WDS case studies have been used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed SADE algorithm. The results show that the proposed algorithm exhibits good performance in terms of solution quality and efficiency. The advantage of the proposed SADE algorithm is that it reduces the effort required to fine-tune algorithm parameter values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential evolution (DE) is an evolutionary optimization technique that is exceptionally simple, fast, and robust at numerical optimization. However, the convergence rate of DE in optimizing a computationally expensive objective function still does not meet our requirements, and an attempt to speed up DE is considered necessary. This article introduces a modified differential evolution (MDE) that enhances the convergence rate without compromising the robustness. MDE algorithm utilizes only one set of population array as against two sets in original DE at any given generation. This modification improves the convergence rate of DE and at the same time maintains the robustness. The performance of MDE is evaluated on two benchmark test functions followed by nonlinear chemical processes. The simulation results show empirical evidences on the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed MDE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]