• International conference on construction engineering and project management
• /
• 2009.05a
• /
• pp.676-684
• /
• 2009

Decision making at the early stages of a construction project has a significant impact on the project, and various scenarios created based on the owner's requirements should be considered for the decision making. At the early stages of a construction project, the information regarding the project is usually limited and uncertain. As such, it is difficult to plan and manage the project (especially cost planning). Thus, in this study, a cost model that could be varied according to the owner's requirements was developed. The cost model that was developed in this study is based on the case-based reasoning (CBR) methodology. The model suggests cost estimation with the most similar historical case as a basis for the estimation. In this study, the optimization process was also conducted, using genetic algorithms that reflect the changes in the number of project characteristics and in the database in the model according to the owner's decision making. Two optimization parameters were established: (1) the minimum criteria for scoring attribute similarity (MCAS); and (2) the range of attribute weights (RAW). The cost model proposed in this study can help building owners and managers estimate the project budget at the business planning stage.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.9
• /
• pp.3291-3300
• /
• 2023

Recently molybdenum alloys have been introduced as accident tolerating materials for cladding of fuel rods. Molybdenum element has seven stable isotopes with different neutron absorption cross section used in various fields, including nuclear physics and radioisotope production. This study presents separation approaches for all intermediate isotopes of molybdenum element by squared-off cascades using a newly developed numerical code with Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA) optimization algorithm. The parameters of cascade including feed flow rate, feed entry stage, cascade cut, input feed flow rate to gas centrifuges (GCs), and cut of the first stage are optimized to maximize both isotope recovery and cascade capacity. The squared off and squared cascades are studied, and the efficiencies are compared. The results obtained from the optimization showed that for the selected squared off cascade, Mo⁹⁴ in four separation steps, Mo⁹⁵ in five steps, Mo⁹⁶ in six steps, Mo⁹⁷ in seven steps, and Mo⁹⁸ in two steps are separated to the desired concentrations. The highest recovery factor is obtained 63% for Mo⁹⁴ separation and lowest recovery factor is found 45% for Mo⁹⁵.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.29 no.5
• /
• pp.677-691
• /
• 2022

Water cycle algorithm (WCA) has been a very effective optimization technique for complex engineering problems. This study employs the WCA for simultaneous prediction of heating load (L_H) and cooling load (L_C) in residential buildings. This algorithm is responsible for optimally tuning a neural network (NN). Utilizing 614 records, the behavior of the L_H and L_C is explored and the captured knowledge is then used to predict for 154 unanalyzed building conditions. Since the WCA is a population-based algorithm, different numbers of the searching agents were tested to find the most optimum configuration. It was observed that the best solution is discovered by 500 agents. A comparison with five newly-developed benchmark optimizers, namely equilibrium optimizer (EO), multi-tracker optimization algorithm (MTOA), slime mould algorithm (SMA), multi-verse optimizer (MVO), and electromagnetic field optimization (EFO) revealed that the WCANN predicts the desired parameters with considerably larger accuracy. Obtained root mean square errors (1.4866, 2.1296, 2.8279, 2.5727, 2.5337, and 2.3029 for the L_H and 2.1767, 2.6459, 3.1821, 2.9732, 2.9616, and 2.6890 for the L_C) indicated that the most reliable prediction was presented by the proposed model. The EFONN, however, provided a more time-effective solution. Lastly, an explicit predictive formula was elicited from the WCANN.

• Current Optics and Photonics
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.435-442
• /
• 2023

These days, the size of a reflective telescope has been increasing for astronomical observation. An additional optical system usually assists a large ground telescope for image analysis or the compensation of air turbulence. To guide collimated light to the external optical system through a designated path, a coudé mirror is usually adopted. Including a collimator, a coudé mirror of a ground telescope is affected by gravity, depending on the telescope's pointing direction. The mirror surface is deformed by the weight of the mirror itself and its mount, which deteriorates the optical performance. In this research, we propose an optimization method for the coudé mirror assembly for a 1-m class ground telescope that minimizes the gravitational surface error (SFE). Here the mirror support positions and the sizes of the mount structure are optimized using finite element analysis and the response surface optimization method in both the horizontal and vertical directions, considering the telescope's altitude angle. Throughout the whole design process, the coefficients of the Zernike polynomials are calculated and their amplitude changes are monitored to determine the optimal design parameters. At the same time, the design budgets for the thermal SFE and the mass and size of the mount are reflected in the study.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.285-301
• /
• 2023

During the construction of E75 highway through Grdelica gorge in Serbia, a major failure occurred in the zone of reinforced rock slope. Excavation was performed in highly anisotropic Paleozoic schist rock formation. The reinforcement consisted of the two rows of micropile wall with pre-stressed anchors. Forces in anchors were monitored with load cells while benchmarks were installed for superficial displacement measurements. The aim of the study is to investigate possible causes of instability considering different probability distributions of the strength of discontinuities and anchor bond strength by applying different optimization techniques for finding the critical failure surface. Even though the deterministic safety factor value is close to unity, the probability of failure is governed by variability of shear strength of anisotropic planes and optimization method used for locating the critical sliding surface. The Cuckoo search technique produces higher failure probabilities compared to the others. Depending on the assigned statistical distribution of input parameters, various performance functions of the factor of safety are obtained. The probability of failure is insensitive to the variation of bond strength. Different sampling techniques should yield similar results considering that the sufficient number of safety factor evaluations is chosen to achieve converged solution.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.363-369
• /
• 2009

In this paper, an estimation method is presented to determine the equivalent circuit model of an underwater acoustic piezoelectric transducer with multiple resonant modes. A fitness function that includes the coupled resonant effects is proposed to minimize an error between the measured impedance of the transducer and the calculated impedance of the equivalent model. Unknown parameters of the equivalent circuit are estimated by using PSO algorithm. The proposed method is applied to an example transducer of the sandwich type with 3 resonances in the frequency band of interest. The analytical impedance of the estimated equivalent circuit model is compared with the measured impedance of the transducer and the validity of proposed method is verified.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.38 no.5
• /
• pp.341-354
• /
• 2024

This paper presents a theoretical method to deal with the aerodynamic performance and pitch optimization of the horizontal axis wind turbine blades at low wind speeds. By considering a blade element, the functional relationship among the angle of attack, pitch angle, rotational speed of the blade, and wind speed is derived in consideration of a quasi-steady aerodynamic model, and aerodynamic loads on the blade element are then obtained. The torque and torque coefficient of the blade are derived by using integration. A polynomial approximation is applied to functions of the lift and drag coefficients for the symmetric and asymmetric airfoils respectively, where specific expressions of aerodynamic loads as functions of the angle of attack (which is a function of pitch angle) are obtained. The pitch optimization problem is investigated by considering the maximum value problem of the instantaneous torque of a blade as a function of pitch angle. Dynamic pitch laws for HAWT blades with either symmetric or asymmetric airfoils are derived. Influences of parameters including inflow ratio, rotational speed, azimuth, and wind speed on torque coefficient and optimal pith angle are discussed.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.640-645
• /
• 2005

Closed-loop model-free optimization of positive feedback time delay controllers for dominant time delay systems is presented. Iterative feedback tuning (IFT) is applied to the tuning of positive feedback time delay controller. Three experiments are carried out to perform the model-free gradient descent optimization. The initial controller parameters and duration in specifying the cost function are suggested. The effects of step size, filter function and time weighting function on the performance of the optimized controlled are given. Simulation and experimental studies are included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the tuning scheme.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
• /
• v.4 no.6
• /
• pp.725-735
• /
• 2006

This paper deals with the problem of self-learning cooperative motion control for the pushing task of a humanoid robot in the sagittal plane. A model with 27 linked rigid bodies is developed to simulate the system dynamics. A simple genetic algorithm(SGA) is used to find the cooperative motion, which is to minimize the total energy consumption for the entire humanoid robot body. And the multi-layer neural network based on backpropagation(BP) is also constructed and applied to generalize parameters, which are obtained from the optimization procedure by SGA, in order to control the system.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.259-265
• /
• 2004

The sealing performance of O-rings is affected by working conditions such as applied pressure, operation temperature, pre-compressed ratio and material properties. In this paper, a pressurized and compressed elastomeric bi-polymer O-ring in which is inserted into a rectangular groove is analyzed by non-linear MARC finite element program based on the Taguchi experimental method. O-rings with 9 different profile models are analyzed for design parameters that are related to the diameter ratio between outer diameter and inner one of bi-polymer O-ring, compressive ratio, groove angle and groove depth. The calculated FEM results showed that the affection ratio of design parameter dlD, which may control sealing pressure of O-rings, is the most influential parameter among the groove angle, groove depth and compression ratio.