• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.3
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• pp.325-339
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• 2020

This study presents a practical application of topology optimization (TO) technique to seek the best form of perforated steel plate shear walls (PSPSW) in simple frames. For the numerical investigation, a finite element model is proposed based on the recent particular form of PSPSW that is called the ring-shaped steel plate shear wall. The TO is applied based on the sensitivity analysis to maximize the reaction forces as the objective function considering the fracture tendency. For this purpose, TO is conducted under a monotonic and cyclic loading considering the nonlinear behavior (material and geometry) and buckling. Also, the effect of plate thickness is studied on the TO results. The final material volume of the optimized plate is limited to the material volume of the ring-shaped plate. Finally, an optimized plate is introduced and its nonlinear behavior is investigated under a cyclic and monotonic loading. For a more comprehensive view, the results are compared to the ring-shaped and four usual forms of SPSWs. The material volume of the plate for all the models is the same. The results indicate the strength, load-carrying, and energy dissipation in the optimized plate are increased while the fracture tendency is reduced without changing the material volume.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.169-180
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• 2000

An optimization procedure has been prescribed for the minimum weight design of symmetrical parabolic arches subjected to arbitrary loading. The cross section is assumed to be a symmetrical box section with variable depth and flange areas. The webs are unstiffened and have constant thickness. The proposed sequential, iterative search technique determines the optimum geometrical configuration of the parabolic arch which includes the optimum depth profile and the optimum lengths and areas of the required flange plates corresponding to the prescribed number of curtailments. The study shows that the optimum value of rise to span ratio (h/L) of a parabolic arch is maximum at 0.41 for uniformly distributed loading over the entire span. For any other loading, the optimum value of h/L is less than 0.41.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.1126-1139
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• 2016

In this research, for the first time, a new optimization method, i.e., strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm II (SPEA-II), is developed for the burnable poison placement (BPP) optimization of a nuclear reactor core. In the BPP problem, an optimized placement map of fuel assemblies with burnable poison is searched for a given core loading pattern according to defined objectives. In this work, SPEA-II coupled with a nodal expansion code is used for solving the BPP problem of Kraftwerk Union AG (KWU) pressurized water reactor. Our optimization goal for the BPP is to achieve a greater multiplication factor ($K_{eff}$) for gaining possible longer operation cycles along with more flattening of fuel assembly relative power distribution, considering a safety constraint on the radial power peaking factor. For appraising the proposed methodology, the basic approach, i.e., SPEA, is also developed in order to compare obtained results. In general, results reveal the acceptance performance and high strength of SPEA, particularly its new version, i.e., SPEA-II, in achieving a semioptimized loading pattern for the BPP optimization of KWU pressurized water reactor.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.77-86
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• 2010

Hydrologic Simulation Program-Fortran (HSPF) coupled with PEST which is optimization program was calibrated and validated at Bochung watershed by using monitoring data of water quantities and nutrient loading. Although the calibrated data were limited, model parameters of each land use type were optimized and coefficient of determinations were ranged from 0.94 to 0.99 for runoff, from 0.89 to 1.00 for TN loading, and from 0.92 to 1.00 for TP loading. The optimized hydrological parameters indicated that the forested land could retain rainfall within soil layer with high soil layer depth and infiltration rate compared with other land use type. Hydrological characteristics of paddy rice field are low infiltration rate and coefficient of roughness. The calibrated parameters related to nutrient loading indicated generation of nutrient pollution from agricultural area including upland and paddy rice field higher than other land use type resulting from fertilizer application. Overall PEST program is useful tool to calibrate HSPF automatically without consuming time and efforts.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.339-351
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• 2022

Evaluating the current condition of existing structures is of primary importance for economic and safety reasons. This can be addressed by Structural System Identification (SSI). A reliable static SSI depends on well-designed sensor configuration and loading cases, as well as efficient parameter estimation algorithms. Static SSI by the Measurement Error-Minimizing Observability Method (MEMOM) is a model-based deterministic static SSI method that could estimate structural parameters from static responses. In the current state of the art, this method is only applicable when structures are subjected to one loading case. This might lead to lack of information in some local regions of the structure (such as the null curvatures zones). To address this issue, the SSI by MEMOM using multiple loading cases is proposed in this work. Observability equations obtained from different loading cases are concatenated simultaneously and an optimization procedure is introduced to obtain the estimations by minimizing the discrepancy between the predicted response and the measured one. In addition, a Genetic-Algorithm (GA)-based Optimal Sensor Placement (OSP) method is proposed to tackle the OSP problem under multiple static loading cases for the very first time. In this approach, the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM)'s determinant is used as the metric of the goodness of sensor configurations. The numerical examples of a 3-span continuous bridge and a 13-story frame, are analyzed to validate the applicability of the extended SSI by MEMOM and the GA-based OSP method.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.535-541
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• 2010

In this paper, we have derived a continuum-based adjoint design sensitivity of general performance functionals with respect to Young' modulus and heat conduction coefficient for steady-state nonlinear thermoelastic problems. An adjoint equation for temperature and displacement fields is defined for the efficient computation of the coupled field design sensitivity. Through numerical examples, we investigated the mesh dependency of the topology optimization method in the thermoelastic problems. Also, comparing the dominant loading cases of thermal and mechanical ones, the loading dependency of topology design optimization in coupled multi-physics problems is investigated.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.1940-1949
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• 2015

This paper presents an Enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization (EPSO) to solve short-term hydrothermal scheduling (STHS) problem with non-convex fuel cost function and a variety of operational constraints related to hydro and thermal units. The operators of the conventional PSO are dynamically controlled using exponential functions for better exploration and exploitation of the search space. The overall methodology efficiently regulates the velocity of particles during their flight and results in substantial improvement in the conventional PSO. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been tested for STHS of two standard test generating systems while considering several operational constraints like system power balance constraints, power generation limit constraints, reservoir storage volume limit constraints, water discharge rate limit constraints, water dynamic balance constraints, initial and end reservoir storage volume limit constraints, valve-point loading effect, etc. The application results show that the proposed EPSO method is capable to solve the hard combinatorial constraint optimization problems very efficiently.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 2016

Domes are architectural and elegant structures which cover a vast area with no interrupting columns in the middle, and with suitable shapes can be also economical. Domes are built in a wide variety of forms and specialized terms are available to describe them. According to their form, domes are given special names such as network, lamella, Schwedler, ribbed, and geodesic domes. In this paper, an optimum topology design algorithm is performed using the enhanced colliding bodies optimization (ECBO) method. The network, lamella, ribbed and Schwedler domes are studied to determine the optimum number of rings, the optimum height of crown and tubular sections of these domes. The minimum volume of each dome is taken as the objective function. A simple procedure is defined to determine the dome structures configurations. This procedure includes calculating the joint coordinates and element constructions. The design constraints are implemented according to the provision of LRFD-AISC (Load and Resistance Factor Design-American Institute of Steel Constitution). The wind loading act on domes according to ASCE 7-05 (American Society of Civil Engineers). This paper will explore the efficiency of various type of domes and compare them at the first stage to investigate the performance of these domes under different kind of loading. At the second stage the wind load on optimum design of domes are investigated for Schwedler dome. Optimization process is performed via ECBO algorithm to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the ECBO in creating optimal design for domes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.43-53
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• 2017

Increasing the operation cycle length can be an important goal in the fuel reload design of a nuclear reactor core. In this research paper, a new optimization approach, electromagnetism mechanism (EM), is applied to the fuel arrangement design of the Bushehr WWER-1000 core. For this purpose, a neutronic solver has been developed for calculating the required parameters during the reload cycle of the reactor. In this package, two modules have been linked, including PARCS v2.7 and WIMS-5B codes, integrated in a solver for using in the fuel arrangement optimization operation. The first results of the prepared package, along with the cycle for the original pattern of Bushehr WWER-1000, are compared and verified according to the Final Safety Analysis Report and then the results of exploited EM linked with Purdue Advanced Reactor Core Simulator (PARCS) and Winfrith Improved Multigroup Scheme (WIMS) codes are reported for the loading pattern optimization. Totally, the numerical results of our loading pattern optimization indicate the power of the EM for this problem and also show the effective improvement of desired parameters for the gained semi-optimized core pattern in comparison to the designer scheme.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2009

This paper presents a newly developed optimization algorithm, the Bee Optimization Algorithm (BeeOA), to solve the economic power dispatch (EPD) problem. The authors have developed a derivative free and global optimization technique based on the working of the honey bee. The economic power dispatch problem is a nonlinear constrained optimization problem. Classical optimization techniques fail to provide a global solution and evolutionary algorithms provide only a good enough solution. The proposed approach has been examined and tested on two test systems with different objectives. A simple power dispatch problem is tested first on 6 generators and then the algorithm is demonstrated on 13 thermal unit systems whose incremental fuel cost function takes into account the value point loading effect. The results are promising and show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach over recently reported methods.