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In this article, the improved chaotic electromagnetic field optimization (ICEFO) algorithm is adopted to generate the optimal values of unknown parameters of fuel cells (FCs). The mathematical model of polymer electrolyte membrane FC (PEMFC) considers nonlinear and complex optimization problems with different control variables. The sum of squared error between the measured and computed stack voltages is considered as the main objective function. The performance of the ICEFO algorithm is tested on three PEMFC stacks. Moreover, sensitivity and statistical measures are presented to confirm the reliability and accuracy of ICEFO. In addition, the effect of changing the cell temperature and reactants pressures is studied for more validation of ICEFO. Furthermore, the results obtained by ICEFO are competitive compared with other optimization methods. These results confirm the effectiveness of ICEFO in solving the optimization problem of PEMFC parameter estimation. Finally, based on the optimization results a Simulink model for PEMFC is developed to examine the dynamic performance of the PEMFCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a modified version of a well-known optimization technique called Farmland Fertility Optimization algorithm (FFA). The modified FFA (MFFA) is developed in order to improve the performance of conventional FFA. It is mainly based on two stages. Firstly, the Levy flights are used to enhance the local searching capability in the exploitation phase and the global searching capability in the exploration phase. Secondly sine–cosine functions are used to create different solutions which fluctuate outwards or towards the best possible solution. The developed algorithm has been validated using ten benchmark functions and three mechanical engineering benchmark optimization problems. After that, the newly developed algorithm MFFA is used for extracting the effective unknown parameters of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) models. The optimal extraction of these parameters is essential to determine an accurate semi-empirical mathematical model for PEMFC. The sum of squared errors between the experimental data and the corresponding calculated ones is adopted as the objective function. Four different commercial PEMFC stacks are used to validate the effectiveness of the developed algorithm. The results obtained by MFFA are compared with those obtained by the conventional FFA and other well-known optimization techniques. Moreover, a comprehensive statistical analysis is performed to determine the accuracy and efficiency of the developed algorithm. The results prove the reliability and superiority of the developed algorithm compared with the conventional FFA and other state-of-the-art optimizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, photovoltaic (PV) energy has been considered one of the most exciting new technologies in the energy sector. PV power plants receive considerable attention because of their wide applications. Consequently, it is important to study the parameters of the solar cell model to control and determine the characteristics of the PV systems. In this study, an improved bonobo optimizer (IBO) was proposed to improve the performance of the conventional bonobo optimizer (BO). Both the IBO and the BO were utilized to obtain the accurate values of the unknown parameters of different mathematical models of solar cells. The proposed IBO improved the performance of the conventional BO by enhancing the exploitation (local search) and exploration (global search) phases to find the best optimal solution, where the search space was reduced using Levy flights and the sine–cosine function. Levy flights enhance the explorative phase, whereas the sine–cosine function improves the exploitation phase. Both the proposed IBO and the conventional BO were applied on single, double, and triple diode models of solar cells. To check the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, statistical analysis based on the results of 20 runs of the optimization program was performed. The results obtained by the proposed IBO were compared with other algorithms, and all results of the proposed algorithm showed their durability and exceeded other algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]