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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]

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, 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]