• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.403-416
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• 2013

This paper describes new optimization strategy that offers significant improvements in performance over existing methods for geometry design of frame structures. In this study, an imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) and ant colony optimization (ACO) are combined to reach to an efficient algorithm, called Imperialist Competitive Ant Colony Optimization (ICACO). The ICACO applies the ICA for global optimization and the ACO for local search. The results of optimal geometry for three benchmark examples of frame structures, demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the new method presented in this work. The results indicate that the new technique has a powerful search strategies due to the modifications made in search module of ICACO. Higher rate of convergence is the superiority of the presented algorithm in comparison with the conventional mathematical methods and non hybrid heuristic methods such as ICA and particle swarm optimization (PSO).

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.1417-1426
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• 2017

Power system analysis, Non-Convex Economic Dispatch (NED) is considered as an open and demanding optimization problem. Despite the fact that realistic ED problems have non-convex cost functions with equality and inequality constraints, conventional search methods have not been able to effectively find the global answers. Considering the great potential of meta-heuristic optimization techniques, many researchers have started applying these techniques in order to solve NED problems. In this paper, a new and efficient approach is proposed based on imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA). The proposed algorithm which is named multi-operator ICA (MuICA) merges three operators with the original ICA in order to simultaneously avoid the premature convergence and achieve the global optimum answer. In this study, the proposed algorithm has been applied to different test systems and the results have been compared with other optimization methods, tending to study the performance of the MuICA. Simulation results are the confirmation of superior performance of MuICA in solving NED problems.

• Journal of Computing Science and Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.87-93
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• 2014

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is currently a prevalent disease from which many people suffer. Early detection and treatment could reduce the risk of heart attack. Currently, the golden standard for the diagnosis of CAD is angiography, which is an invasive procedure. In this article, we propose an algorithm that uses data mining techniques, a fuzzy expert system, and the imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA), to make CAD diagnosis by a non-invasive procedure. The ICA is used to adjust the fuzzy membership functions. The proposed method has been evaluated with the Cleveland and Hungarian datasets. The advantage of this method, compared with others, is the interpretability. The accuracy of the proposed method is 94.92% by 11 rules, and the average length of 4. To compare the colonial competitive algorithm with other metaheuristic algorithms, the proposed method has been implemented with the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The results indicate that the colonial competition algorithm is more efficient than the PSO algorithm.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.355-363
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• 2018

In the following paper, a socio-political heuristic search approach, named the imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) has been used to improve the efficiency of the multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network (ANN) for predicting the compressive strength of concrete. 173 concrete samples have been investigated. For this purpose the values of slump flow, the weight of aggregate and cement, the maximum size of aggregate and the water-cement ratio have been used as the inputs. The compressive strength of concrete has been used as the output in the hybrid ICA-ANN model. Results have been compared with the multiple-linear regression model (MLR), the genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). The results indicate the superiority and high accuracy of the hybrid ICA-ANN model in predicting the compressive strength of concrete when compared to the other methods.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.447-452
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• 2018

The controlling and prediction of spring back is one of the most important factors in sheet metal forming processes which require high dimensional precision. The relationship between effective parameters and spring back phenomenon is highly nonlinear and complicated. Moreover, the objective function is implicit with regard to the design variables. In this paper, first the influence of some effective factors on spring back in U-die bending process was studied through some experiments and then regarding the robustness of artificial neural network (ANN) approach in predicting objectives in mentioned kind of problems, ANN was used to estimate a prediction model of spring back. Eventually, the spring back angle was optimized using the Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA). The results showed that the employment of ANN provides us with less complicated and time-consuming analytical calculations as well as good results with reasonable accuracy.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.6
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• pp.709-717
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• 2017

This paper develops a two-stage method for structural damage identification by using modal data. First, the Residual Force Vector (RFV) is introduced to detect any potentially damaged elements of structures. Second, data of the frequency domain are used to build up the objective function, and then the Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) is utilized to estimate damaged extents. ICA is a heuristic algorithm with simple structure, which is easy to be implemented and it is effective to deal with high-dimension nonlinear optimization problem. The advantages of this present method are: (1) Calculation complexity can be decreased greatly after eliminating many intact elements in the first step. (2) Robustness, ICA ensures the robustness of the proposed method. Various damaged cases and different structures are investigated in numerical simulations. From these results, anyone can point out that the present algorithm is effective and robust for structural damage identification and is also better than many other heuristic algorithms.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.733-745
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• 2022

This study proposed a robust artificial intelligence (AI) model based on the social behaviour of the imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) and artificial neural network (ANN) for modelling the deflection of reinforced concrete beams, abbreviated as ICA-ANN model. Accordingly, the ICA was used to adjust and optimize the parameters of an ANN model (i.e., weights and biases) aiming to improve the accuracy of the ANN model in modelling the deflection reinforced concrete beams. A total of 120 experimental datasets of reinforced concrete beams were employed for this aim. Therein, applied load, tensile reinforcement strength and the reinforcement percentage were used to simulate the deflection of reinforced concrete beams. Besides, five other AI models, such as ANN, SVM (support vector machine), GLMNET (lasso and elastic-net regularized generalized linear models), CART (classification and regression tree) and KNN (k-nearest neighbours), were also used for the comprehensive assessment of the proposed model (i.e., ICA-ANN). The comparison of the derived results with the experimental findings demonstrates that among the developed models the ICA-ANN model is that can approximate the reinforced concrete beams deflection in a more reliable and robust manner.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.830-839
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• 2017

Support vector machine (SVM) is introduced as an effective fault diagnosis technique based on dissolved gases analysis (DGA) for oil-immersed transformers with maximum generalization ability; however, the applicability of the SVM is highly affected due to the difficulty of selecting the SVM parameters appropriately. Therefore, a novel approach combing SVM with improved imperialist competitive algorithm (IICA) for fault diagnosis of oil-immersed transformers was proposed in the paper. The improved ICA, which is proved to be an effective optimization approach, is employed to optimize the parameters of SVM. Cross validation and normalizations were applied in the training processes of SVM and the trained SVM model with the optimized parameters was established for fault diagnosis of oil-immersed transformers. Three classification benchmark sets were studied based on particle swarm optimization SVM (PSOSVM) and IICASVM with four multiple classification schemes to select the best scheme for transformer fault diagnosis. The results show that the proposed model can obtain higher diagnosis accuracy than other methods. The comparisons confirm that the proposed model is an effective approach for classification problems.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.2042-2048
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• 2014

In medium voltage electrical distribution networks, reforming the loss reduction is important, and in line with this, the issue of system engineering and use of proper equipment Expansion of distribution systems results in higher system losses and poor voltage regulation. Therefore, an efficient and effective distribution system has become more important. So, proper selection of conductors in the distribution system is crucial as it determines the current density and the resistance of the line. Evaluation of aging conductors for losses and costs imposed in addition to the careful planning of technical and economic networks can be identified in the network design. In this paper the use of imperialist competitive algorithm; genetic algorithm; is proposed to optimal branch conductor selection and reconstruction in radial distribution systems planning. The objective is to minimize the overall cost of annual energy losses and depreciation on the cost of conductors to improve productivity given the maximum current carrying capacity and acceptable voltage levels. Simulations are carried out on 69-bus radial distribution network using genetic algorithm approaches to show the accuracy as well as the efficiency of the proposed solution technique.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.489-512
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• 2021

In this study, two powerful techniques, namely particle swarm optimization (PSO) and imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) were selected and combined with a pre-developed ANN model aiming at improving its performance prediction of the compressive strength of concrete modified with fly ash. To achieve this study's aims, a comprehensive database with 379 data samples was collected from the available literature. The output of the database is the compressive strength (CS) of concrete samples, which are influenced by 9 parameters as model inputs, namely those related to mix composition. The modeling steps related to ICA-ANN (or neuro-imperialism) and PSO-ANN (or neuro-swarm) were conducted through the use of several parametric studies to design the most influential parameters on these hybrid models. A comparison of the CS values predicted by hybrid intelligence techniques with the experimental CS values confirmed that the neuro-swarm model could provide a higher degree of accuracy than another proposed hybrid model (i.e., neuro-imperialism). The train and test correlation coefficient values of (0.9042 and 0.9137) and (0.8383 and 0.8777) for neuro-swarm and neuro-imperialism models, respectively revealed that although both techniques are capable enough in prediction tasks, the developed neuro-swarm model can be considered as a better alternative technique in mapping the concrete strength behavior.