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Highlights Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite tubes have become increasingly popular in crashworthiness applications. On the other hand, square section GFRP tubes are prone to damage in a catastrophic failure mode in the early stages of the crushing process. At this point, triggering mechanisms have great potential to ensure deformation in progressive mode and improve the compression performance of GFRP tubes. Motivated by these facts, this paper aims to optimize the compression performance of square GFRP tubes by implementing notch‐type triggering mechanisms. The effects of notch width, number and length on the axial compression response of tubes were investigated to determine the optimal trigger configurations that would maximize specific energy absorption (SEA) and minimize peak crushing force (PCF). Experiments were conducted based on Taguchi L9 orthogonal array design, and Taguchi coupled Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) method was employed for optimizing multiple responses. The optimization results revealed that the proposed trigger mechanisms induced progressive crushing by preventing catastrophic failure, thereby significantly improving the compression performance of GFRP tubes. In particular, the results showed that the PCF of intact GFRP tube decreased by up to 38%, while SEA increased by up to 130% with the help of proposed trigger mechanism. The compression performance of square GFRP tubes improved by notch‐type triggering. The notch width, length and number were chosen as design parameters. Taguchi experimental design was used to find the best configuration of design parameters. The optimum configurations were examined through the entropy‐WASPAS approach. The results revealed that significant improvements can be achieved using trigger mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to test the performance of the recently proposed weighted superposition attraction-repulsion algorithms (WSA and WSAR) on unconstrained continuous optimization test problems and constrained optimization problems. WSAR is a successor of weighted superposition attraction algorithm (WSA). WSAR is established upon the superposition principle from physics and mimics attractive and repulsive movements of solution agents (vectors). Differently from the WSA, WSAR also considers repulsive movements with updated solution move equations. WSAR requires very few algorithm-specific parameters to be set and has good convergence and searching capability. Through extensive computational tests on many benchmark problems including CEC’2015 and CEC’2020 performance of the WSAR is compared against WSA and other metaheuristic algorithms. It is statistically shown that the WSAR algorithm is able to produce good and competitive results in comparison to its predecessor WSA and other metaheuristic algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Composite thin‐walled tubes made of glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP) are attracting great attention due to their lightweight and outstanding crashworthiness capacity. Implementing triggers to the design of GFRP composite tubes enables a further increase in specific energy absorption while simultaneously reducing peak crushing force. Motivated by these facts, a notch‐type triggering mechanism is suggested in this work to enhance the energy absorption capabilities of circular GFRP composite tubes. GFRP tube samples with (0°/90°)8 layups are manufactured using the roll wrapping process. Subsequently, these samples are triggered and subjected to quasi‐static axial compression tests. The diameter, quantity and placement of the triggering notches are selected as design parameters, and experiments are carried out using Taguchi's L9 orthogonal array. Each of these parameters has three levels to identify the optimal combination of design parameters. To optimize multiple responses, the weighted aggregated sum product assessment, a multiple criteria decision‐making technique, is employed in conjunction with mono‐criteria optimization. The findings indicated that substantial enhancements can be realized in all parameters related to energy absorption performance by triggering progressive crushing modes in a controlled manner using a notch‐type triggering mechanism. In particular, the findings indicated that the specific energy absorption and the crush force efficiency of the intact GFRP composite tubes could be improved up to 18% and 68.3%, respectively, by the selection of appropriate triggering parameters. Highlights: Axial crushing and optimal design of triggered GFRP tubes are investigatedNumber, diameter, and center distance of the notches are chosen as parametersTaguchi experimental design is used for the best configuration of parametersThe optimum configurations are investigated using the entropy‐WASPASSignificant improvements are achieved using the trigger mechanism [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional parking lots struggle to meet demand, prompting the rise of Fully Automated Parking Systems (FAPS), offering eco-friendly alternatives with advanced technology. However, operational challenges persist, especially in planning and scheduling. Real-time responsiveness necessitates dispatching rules and heuristics. This study comprehensively explores FAPS operational dynamics, assessing various rule combinations' impact on customer wait times and system utilization. Utilizing a six-month MATLAB simulation, results favour the Nearest-Available-Slot (NAS) allocation rule coupled with First-Come-First-Served (FCFS) sequencing, emphasizing allocation's pivotal role in system efficiency. Future research will refine allocation strategies to further optimize FAPS operational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]